Information communication terminal, information distribution apparatus, information distribution system, content management method, broadcast reception method, information distribution method, programs and storage medium

ABSTRACT

A data distribution component, system, and method. The data distribution component includes circuitry and a memory. The circuitry is configured to communicate with a plurality of devices, provide content identification data specifying a content item, provide an opportunity to purchase the content item to the plurality of devices, provide the content item to a first one of the devices of a user, after a purchase process, and provide the content item which is purchased at the first one of the devices of the user to a second one of the devices of the user for download. The memory is configured to store the content identification data and the content item.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 13/285,878 filedOct. 31, 2011, which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 10/512,164 filedMay 18, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein byreference. U.S. Ser. No. 10/512,164 is a national stage ofPCT/JP03/05761 filed May 8, 2003, and also claims priority under 35U.S.C. 119 to Japanese Application No. 2002-132469 filed May 8, 2002.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to information communication terminals,information distribution apparatus, information distribution system,content management method, broadcast reception method, informationdistribution method, programs and storage medium.

BACKGROUND ART

Various kinds of audio visual equipment owned by the user have beenbecoming popular. That is to say, personal enjoyment of the so-calledmusical software and the so-called movie software has been becomingpopular.

For example, the user owns an audio system for disc storage mediums suchas a CD (Compact Disc), an MD (Mini Disc) and a DVD (Digital VersatileDisc). With such an audio system, the user is capable of reproducingcontents from a desired CD, MD or DVD that the user purchased as packagemedia or recording selected favorite musical software onto recordablemedia.

In addition, as audio visual equipment, a recording/reproductionapparatus for storing audio and video data files onto large-capacitymedia such as a hard disc has been developed.

For example, a content recorded on the package media owned by the usercan be recorded by dumping to a storage medium employed in therecording/reproduction apparatus. An example of the package media is aCD, an example of the content is musical software and an example of thestorage medium is a hard disc. By using a large-capacity storage mediumof the recording/reproduction apparatus, for example, the user iscapable of storing all pieces of musical software from a large number ofCDs or other package storage media owned by the user in arecording/reproduction system. An example of the large-capacity storagemedium is an HDD (hard-disc drive).

By having pieces of musical software recorded in arecording/reproduction system as described above, when the user wants toreproduce a piece of musical software, the user does not have go to allthe trouble to find a CD or other package recording media for recordingthe desired musical software and mount the CD on therecording/reproduction apparatus. That is to say, the user needs only tooperate the recording/reproduction apparatus to select, read out andreproduce the musical software from the HDD.

Thus, such a recording/reproduction apparatus is extremely convenientspecially for, among others, a user who owns a large number of CDs orthe like. In addition, since there is no need to replace the CDs or thelike, for example, it is possible to simply and conveniently do thingssuch as enjoyment of a music content by selecting a piece of music datasuitable for the state of mind and the situation, which prevail at thattime.

Also, such a recording/reproduction apparatus makes it possible tocommunicate through the network, by communicating with an externalserver (information distribution apparatus), downloading music contentscan be implemented. That is to say, the recording/reproduction apparatusfactions as an information communication terminal.

Since a downloaded content is also stored in the HDD, the user can enjoymusic or the like with ease.

By the way, a content downloaded or distributed by an external servernormally has a content ID assigned to the content. Thus, contents storedfor example in the HDD of an information communication terminal or arecording/reproduction apparatus can be managed by using content IDsassigned to the contents.

On the other hand, a content copied by the user from recording mediasuch as a CD to the HDD does not have a content ID from the beginning.Thus, in order to manage such contents recorded on the HDD, theinformation communication terminal assigns a content ID to each of thecontents.

In an HDD under the condition described above, no uniformity existsbetween content IDs assigned to contents copied (ripped) from arecording medium such as a CD contents downloaded from an externalserver.

The non-existence of uniformity inadvertently limits the enhancement ofthe operating function of the equipment and the improvement of servicesprovided for the user.

For example, there is no way to contents distributable from an externalserver in a process to present distributable contents are contentsalready stored in the HDD. To put it concretely, the user is not capableof determining whether or not a content cataloged on a content listshowing distributable contents worth charging for is a content alreadystored in the HDD. An example of the content is musical software.

In addition, even if the user wants to acquire various kinds ofinformation on a particular content such as musical software, which hasbeen ripped from a recording medium such as a CD, from an externalserver, since the content ID assigned to the particular content isdifferent from the content ID cataloged in the server as an ID assignedto the same content available in the server, a communication processcannot be carried out smoothly.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

It is thus an object of the present invention addressing the problemsdescribed above to improve functions of an information communicationterminal and services rendered by the terminal by managing contents onthe basis of management of content IDs, which are assigned to thecontents and managed as IDs conforming to a rule of uniformity.

An information communication terminal provided by the present inventionincludes: communication means capable of communicating with an externalapparatus through a network; storage means for storing contents andcontent management information; content storage control means forreading out a content from a recording medium and writing the contentinto the storage means; content-identifying information transmissioncontrol means for generating content-identifying information related toa content stored by the content storage control means in the storagemeans and driving the communication means to transmit thecontent-identifying information to an external information distributionapparatus for managing content identifiers; and management-informationcontrol means for executing control to manage contents stored in thestorage means by using content identifiers, which are received by thecommunication means from the information distribution apparatus inresponse to the transmitted content-identifying information and includedin the content management information.

In this case, the content-identifying information transmission controlmeans generates the content-identifying information as information on arecording medium itself from which the content storage control meansreads out a content.

The content-identifying information is information generated frommanagement information for the recording medium.

As an option, the content-identifying information is informationgenerated from barcode information provided on the recording medium.

As another option, the content-identifying information is informationgenerated from ISRC information provided on the recording medium.

The content identifier is a content identifier issued by an externalinformation distribution apparatus for managing the content identifier.

In addition, the content identifier is a content identifier conformingto a CIDF.

The content-identifying information transmission control means generatesthe content-identifying information as information on a recording mediumitself, from which the content storage control means reads out acontent, and drives the communication means to transmit thecontent-identifying information to an external information distributionapparatus for managing content identifiers whereas themanagement-information control means includes content identifiers, whichare received by the communication means from the informationdistribution apparatus in response to the transmittedcontent-identifying information, in the management information ascontent identifiers associated with all contents recorded in therecording medium.

In this case, the management-information control means managesinformation indicating whether or not a content identified by eachcontent identifier included in the management information has beenstored in the storage means.

The content-identifying information transmission control means drivesthe communication means to transmit the content-identifying informationto an external information distribution apparatus for managingadditional information on contents, and the management-informationcontrol means executes control to manage the additional informationreceived by the communication means from the information distributionapparatus in response to the transmitted content-identifying informationas information associated with a content identifier in the managementinformation.

In addition, the content-identifying information transmission controlmeans generates the content-identifying information as information on arecording medium itself, from which the content storage control meansreads out a content, and drives the communication means to transmit thecontent-identifying information to an external information distributionapparatus for managing additional information associated with contents,whereas the management-information control means executes control tomanage, where the additional information is received by thecommunication means from the information distribution apparatus inresponse to the transmitted content-identifying information, theadditional information with all contents recorded in the recordingmedium as information associated with each content identifier in themanagement information.

Moreover, there are further provided: determination means fordetermining whether or not a content identified by each contentidentifier on a content list received by the communication means from anexternal information distribution apparatus as a list of contentidentifiers has been stored in the storage means by referring to themanagement information on the basis of the content identifiers on thecontent list; and display means for displaying the content list in adisplay state showing determination results produced by thedetermination means.

As an alternative, there are further provided: content-identifiertransmission control means for controlling the communication means totransmit content identifiers of all or at least some of contents storedin the storage means to an external information distribution apparatusfor managing a content list of content identifiers; and display meansfor displaying a content list in a display state showing determinationresults received along with the content list from the informationdistribution apparatus as determination information indicating whetheror not a content identified by each content identifier on the contentlist has been stored in the storage means.

In addition, there are further provided: reproduction means forreproducing and outputting a content stored in the storage means or acontent recorded on another recording medium; content-identifiertransmission control means for searching the management information forthe content identifier of the content reproduced by the reproductionmeans and controlling the communication means to transmit the contentidentifier to an external information distribution apparatus; anddisplay means for displaying information received by the communicationmeans from the information distribution apparatus as informationtransmitted by the information distribution apparatus in response to thetransmitted content identifier.

In addition, there is provided content-identifier transmission controlmeans for controlling the communication means to transmit contentidentifiers of all or at least some of contents stored in the storagemeans to an external information distribution apparatus for executingbackup management.

An information communication terminal provided by the present inventionincludes: communication means capable of communicating with an externalapparatus through a network; broadcast reception means; extraction meansfor extracting a content identifier from a signal received by thebroadcast reception means; content-identifier transmission control meansfor controlling the communication means to transmit the contentidentifier extracted by the extraction means to an external informationdistribution apparatus; and display means for displaying informationreceived by the communication means as information transmitted by theinformation distribution apparatus in response to the transmittedcontent identifier.

An information communication terminal provided by the present inventionincludes: communication means capable of communicating with an externalapparatus through a network; broadcast reception means;content-identifying information transmission control means forgenerating content-identifying information from information such asinformation on a broadcasting station and/or a broadcasting time, whichare received by the broadcast reception means, and driving thecommunication means to transmit the content-identifying information toan external information distribution apparatus for managing contentidentifiers; content-identifier transmission control means forcontrolling the communication means to transmit a content identifierreceived by the communication means from the external informationdistribution apparatus in response to the transmittedcontent-identifying information to another external informationdistribution apparatus; and display means for displaying informationreceived by the communication means from the other informationdistribution apparatus as information transmitted by the otherinformation distribution apparatus in response to the transmittedcontent identifier.

An information distribution apparatus provided by the present inventionincludes: communication means capable of communicating with aninformation communication terminal through a network; storage means forstoring content identifiers in a state allowing one of the contentidentifiers or a plurality of aforementioned content identifiers to beidentified on the basis of content-identifying information; search meansfor carrying an operation to search the storage means for one of theaforementioned identifiers or a plurality of aforementioned contentidentifiers associated with content-identifying information received bythe communication means from an information communication terminal inthe event of the reception of the content-identifying information andextracting the content identifiers found in the search operation fromthe storage means; and distribution control means for controlling thecommunication means to transmit the content identifiers found by thesearch means as a result of the search operation to the informationcommunication terminal transmitting the content-identifying information.

In this case, the content-identifying information is information for arecording medium itself from which the information communicationterminal is capable of reading out a content.

The content-identifying information is information generated frommanagement information for a recording medium from which the informationcommunication terminal is capable of reading out a content.

As an option, the content-identifying information is informationgenerated from barcode information provided on a recording medium fromwhich the information communication terminal is capable of reading out acontent.

As another option, the content-identifying information is informationgenerated from ISRC information provided on a recording medium fromwhich the information communication terminal is capable of reading out acontent.

The content identifier is a content identifier issued by the informationdistribution apparatus for managing content identifiers in conjunctionwith the information communication terminal as identifiers conforming toa rule of uniformity.

In addition, the content identifier is a content identifier conformingto a CIDF.

The storage means is also used for storing additional informationassociated with content-identifying information. When the communicationmeans receives content-identifying information from an informationcommunication terminal, the search means uses the receivedcontent-identifying information to carry out an operation of searchingthe storage means for additional information associated with thiscontent-identifying information and extracts the additional informationfound in the search operation from the storage means. The distributioncontrol means then controls the communication means to transmit theadditional information extracted by the search means as a result of thesearch operation to the information communication terminal from whichthe content-identifying information has been received.

An information distribution apparatus provided by the present inventionincludes: communication means capable of communicating with aninformation communication terminal through a network; storage means forstoring a content list including content identifiers managed inconjunction with the information communication terminal as identifiersconforming to a rule of uniformity; and distribution control means forcontrolling the communication means to transmit the content list storedin the storage means as a list including the content identifiers managedas identifiers conforming to a rule of uniformity to the informationcommunication terminal.

An information distribution apparatus provided by the present inventionincludes: communication means capable of communicating with aninformation communication terminal through a network; storage means forstoring content lists each including content identifiers managed inconjunction with the information communication terminal as identifiersconforming to a rule of uniformity; determination means for determiningwhether or not a content identified by each content identifier on one ofthe content lists to be distributed has been stored in the informationcommunication terminal in the event of reception of content identifiersof all or some contents stored in the information communication terminalby the communication means from the information communication terminal;and distribution control means for controlling the communication meansto transmit a content list to be distributed and determination resultsproduced by the determination means to the information communicationterminal.

An information distribution apparatus provided by the present inventionincludes: communication means capable of communicating with aninformation communication terminal through a network; storage means forstoring information relevant to contents as information associated withcontent identifiers managed in conjunction with at least the informationcommunication terminal as identifiers conforming to a rule ofuniformity; search means for carrying an operation to search the storagemeans for information associated with a specific one of the contentidentifiers received by the communication means from an informationcommunication terminal in the event of the reception of the specificcontent identifier and extracting the information found in the searchoperation from the storage means; and distribution control means forcontrolling the communication means to transmit the information found bythe search means as a result of the search operation to the informationcommunication terminal transmitting the specific content identifier.

An information distribution apparatus provided by the present inventionincludes: communication means capable of communicating with aninformation communication terminal through a network; and backup storagemeans for storing received content identifiers of all or some ofcontents stored in the information communication terminal as contentidentifiers, which are managed in conjunction with the informationcommunication terminal as identifiers conforming to a rule ofconformity, in the event of the reception of the content identifiers bythe communication means.

In addition, the present invention also provides an informationdistribution system including the information communication terminalwith a variety of configurations described above and informationdistribution apparatus with a variety of configurations wherein theinformation communication terminal are capable of communicating with theinformation distribution apparatus through a network.

On the top of that, the present invention also provides a contentmanagement method or a broadcast reception method of carrying outoperations of the information communication terminal with a variety ofconfigurations described above.

Furthermore, the present invention also provides an informationdistribution method of carrying out operations of the informationdistribution apparatus with a variety of configurations described above.

Moreover, the present invention also provides programs for carrying outoperations of the information communication terminal and the informationdistribution apparatus and a recording medium for storing the programs.

In accordance with the present invention, in the informationcommunication terminal and the information distribution apparatus,contents are managed by using content identifiers managed as identifiersconforming to a rule of uniformity. In particular, contents ripped fromdisc media such as a CD and stored in an information communicationterminal are also managed by using content identifiers acquired from aninformation distribution apparatus so that the stored contents can bemanaged by using content identifiers managed in conjunction with theinformation distribution apparatus.

Thus, when the information communication terminal specifies a content ina communication with the information distribution apparatus, a contentidentifier, conforming to a rule of uniformity, assigned to the contentcan be used in specifying the content. As a result, it is possibledownload a content, to acquire additional information and to render avariety of services.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an information distributionsystem implemented by an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a CD-information server provided bythe embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a terminal provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing information stored in aCD-information database provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing structure stored in theCD-information database provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 6A is an explanatory diagram showing information stored in an HDDemployed in the terminal provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 6B is an explanatory diagram showing information stored in the HDDemployed in the terminal provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the data structure ofinformation stored in the HDD employed in the terminal provided by theembodiment;

FIG. 8 shows a flowchart representing processing, which is carried outwhen a CD is mounted onto the terminal provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing communication processing toacquire CD information including a content ID in accordance with theembodiment;

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing another typical informationdistribution system implemented by an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 11A is an explanatory diagram showing a CD title informationdatabase and a content-ID database, which are provided by theembodiment;

FIG. 11B is an explanatory diagram showing a CD title informationdatabase and a content-ID database, which are provided by theembodiment;

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing other communication processingto acquire CD information including a content ID in accordance with theembodiment;

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing further communicationprocessing to acquire CD information including a content ID inaccordance with the embodiment;

FIG. 14A is an explanatory diagram showing a song-list database and acontent database, which are provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 14B is an explanatory diagram showing a song-list database and acontent database, which are provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the structure of a song list provided bythe embodiment;

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing a display of the song list andcommunication processing to download a content in accordance with theembodiment;

FIG. 17 shows a flowchart representing processing to display a song liston the terminal provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a typical display of the songlist provided by the embodiment;

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing a display of the song list andother communication processing to download a content in accordance withan embodiment;

FIG. 20 shows a flowchart representing processing carried out by adistribution server of the embodiment to check contents stored in theterminal;

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram showing communication processing toacquire information relevant to a reproduced content in an embodiment;

FIG. 22 is an explanatory diagram showing communication processing toacquire information relevant to a broadcast signal in an embodiment;

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram showing other communication processingto acquire information relevant to a broadcast signal in an embodiment;and

FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram showing communication processing torender a backup service in an embodiment.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An information distribution system provided by the present invention andan information distribution method for the system are explained indetail by referring to diagrams showing their embodiments.

The embodiments of the present invention are described in chaptersarranged in the following order:

1: Outline of the Information Distribution System 2: Configuration ofthe CD-Information Server 3: Configuration of the Terminal 4:CD-Information Database 5: Information Stored in the HDD of the Terminal6: Processing Carried Out When Mounting a CD on the Terminal 7: SystemIncluding a CD Title Information Server and a Content-ID Server 8: TheDistribution Server, the Content Server and a Song List 9: Processing toDisplay a Song List in the Terminal 10: Processing by the DistributionServer in Song-List Transmission 11: Information Acquisition ProcessingBased on a Transmitted Content ID at a Reproduction Time 12: FirstProcessing to Acquire Information by Transmission of a Content ID at aBroadcast Reception Time 13: Second Processing to Acquire Information byTransmission of a Content ID at a Broadcast Reception Time 14: BackupServices 1: Outline of the Information Distribution System

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an information distributionsystem implemented by an embodiment.

This information distribution system is a system connecting a terminal 1used by a general user at a home to a variety of servers renderinginformation services, which are related to the use of the terminal 1,through a network 2 in a state allowing the terminal 1 and the serversto communicate with each other through the network 2. An example of theterminal 1 is a recording/reproduction apparatus.

The network 2 can be a public line network or a network constructed as anetwork dedicated for the information distribution system. In addition,the network 2 can be a CATV network, a wireless-communication network, anetwork based on satellite communication lines or another kind ofnetwork. That is to say, the configuration of the communication and theconfiguration of the transmission line are not particularly limited tospecific ones.

The terminal 1 used by the general user will be described in detaillater. The terminal 1 includes a large-capacity internal data-filestorage unit such as an HDD 31 shown in FIG. 3. The terminal 1 also hasa function to drive package media and a function to input and outputdata from and to the network 2. Examples of the package media are anoptical disc, a magneto-optical disc and a semiconductor memory card.Typically, the function to drive package media is a function toreproduce data from a CD.

The terminal 1 is capable of storing a content into a storage unit suchas the HDD as a file. The content can be an audio content reproducedfrom a CD or a content downloaded to the terminal 1 by way of thenetwork 2.

In this embodiment, a music content is taken as an example. It is to benoted, however, that the present invention is capable of keeping up witha variety of contents such as a video content, text data, an applicationprogram and game software.

In addition, the terminal 1 allows the user to reproduce an arbitraryfile selected among those stored in the storage unit such as the HDD.Typically, a music content such as a piece of music is stored in thestorage unit as a file. Thus, if a user owning a large number of CDsstores all pieces of music on all the CDs into the terminal 1 inadvance, the user will be capable of reproducing a desired piece ofmusic without going to all the trouble of selecting one of the CDs andmounting the selected CD on the terminal 1.

The terminal 1 can conceivably be designed into a so-calledradio-cassette configuration suitable for use as audio equipment at thehome of the user. Of course, the terminal 1 can also be designed as anapparatus of a component type.

Typically, on the front panel of the terminal 1, a variety of operationkeys and operation buttons is provided as keys and buttons to beoperated by the user. The keys include a rotation/push-type key known asa jog dial.

In addition, as output members each used for outputting a result ofreproduction to the user, a speaker and a display unit are provided. Thespeaker as an output member for outputting typically a reproduced soundand the display device is an output member for displaying/outputtingvarious kinds of information.

On the top of that, the terminal 1 also has an optical-disc insertionunit into which the user inserts an optical disc owned by the user in anoperation to reproduce a content from the disc or to copy a content datafrom the disc to typically the internal HDD to be described later.Examples of the optical disc are an audio CD, a CD-ROM, a CD-R and aCD-RW.

In the information distribution system shown in FIG. 1, servers capableof communicating with the terminal 1 described above include aCD-information server 3, a distribution server 5, a content server 7, abroadcast-information server 9 and a backup-service server 11.

An operating function of each of the servers will be described later.The following description explains only an outline of each of theservers.

Provided with a CD-information database 4, the CD-information server 3is a server for managing content IDs as IDs conforming to a rule ofuniformity at least in the information distribution system. As describedearlier, a content ID is an identifier assigned to each of generallydistributed contents. For example, a unique content ID is assigned tothe title of each song recorded on a CD sold in the general market.Thus, the CD-information server 3 manages for example content IDsassigned to pieces of music recorded on CDs.

In addition, the CD-information server 3 also makes use of theCD-information database 4 for managing CD title information asadditional information for CD albums or music contents themselves.

The additional information serving as the CD title information includestypically texts, pictures, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of thehome page of each artist, information on copyrights and the names ofrelevant people. The texts include the title of a song, the name of anartist and the lyrics of a song. The pictures include the backgroundimage of a song, the photo of an artist and a picture displayed on thejacket of a disc. The URL is an address on the Internet. The relevantpeople include a lyrics composer, a song writer and a producer.

The CD-information server 3 has a function to distribute a content IDand additional information to terminals 1.

By receiving content IDs each managed as an ID conforming to a rule ofuniformity from the CD-information server 3 and using such content IDs,the terminal 1 is thus capable of managing contents ripped from a CD orthe like and stored into typically the HDD. In addition, the terminal 1is capable of receiving various kinds of additional information forcontents stored in the HDD or the like from the CD-information server 3and storing the additional information typically in the HDD to bedisplayed later in a variety of operations.

The distribution server 5 is a server for rendering services todistribute contents. The distribution server 5 has a song-list database6 for managing a song list of music contents to be typically distributedto users as contents worth charging for.

The distribution server 5 distributes a song list to the terminal 1 as apart of a service rendered to download a music content to the terminal1.

Music contents on the song list are managed by using content IDsassigned to the contents.

The content server 7 is a server for managing music contents themselves,that is, contents to be actually distributed to general users. Musiccontents for distribution are stored in a content database 8. When theuser of the terminal 1 carries out an operation desiring a purchase(transmission) of a music content on a song list, the content server 7downloads the desired music content to the terminal 1.

As described above, music contents are managed by using content IDsassigned to the contents.

The broadcast-information server 9 is a server for managing a variety ofbroadcasting stations such as radio and television broadcasting stationsand their broadcasting time tables. The broadcast-information server 9is also a server for recognizing a content ID assigned to a content tobe broadcasted. In a broadcast-information database 10, the time tablesof the broadcasting stations and content IDs assigned to contents to bebroadcasted are stored.

By transmitting information on a broadcasting station and a broadcastingtime to the broadcast-information server 9 when receiving a broadcastfrom the station, the terminal 1 is capable of acquiring the content IDof a content included in the broadcast.

Provided with a backup database 12 for storing management information ofthe terminal 1, the backup-service server 11 is a server for renderingbackup services for the terminal 1. That is to say, by storingmanagement information including the content ID of a content stored inthe terminal 1 as a backup, the backup-service server 11 is capable ofrendering a necessary service in the event of an accident in theterminal 1 or the like.

It is to be noted that the typical information distribution system shownin FIG. 1 is no more than an example. For example, the content server 7can be operated by each of numerous recording companies. In this case,the information distribution system actually includes a number ofcontent servers 7. By the same token, an information distribution systemmay include a number of any servers other than the content server 7.

In accordance with the above description, the CD-information server 3 isa server for rendering a service of managing content IDs and managementinformation for generally distributed CDs. Of course, the CD-informationserver 3 may conceivably be a server for numerous kinds of package mediasuch as a DVD and an MD. In addition, the CD-information server 3 mayconceivably be a server for managing also content IDs of other contentsincluding not only music contents, but also video contents as IDsconforming to a rule of uniformity.

2: Configuration of the CD Information Server

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the CD-informationserver 3.

A CPU 41 controls the whole CD-information server 3 and carries outprocessing on the basis of an activated program. For example, the CPU 41executes operations of communication through the network 2, operationson inputs and outputs from and to the operator, control of theCD-information database 4 and data processing.

The CPU 41 exchanges control signals and data with other circuitcomponents through a bus 42.

A memory unit 43 comprehensively represents memories such as a RAM, aROM and a flash memory, which are used in processing carried out in theCPU 41.

The ROM of the memory unit 43 is used for storing, among others,operating programs of the CPU 41 and a program loader. The flash memoryof the memory unit 43 is used for storing, among others, a variety ofprocessing coefficients and parameters used in the programs. Areas areallocated temporarily in the RAM of the memory unit 43 to data used in aprogram being executed and a task.

An input unit 45 includes a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, a remotecommander and other input devices. The input unit 45 receives a varietyof operation and data inputs entered by the operator of theCD-information server 3. The input information is subjected to apredetermined process in an input-processing unit 44 before being passedon to the CPU 41. The CPU 41 executes necessary processing and controlfor the input information.

A display unit 47 includes display devices such as a CRT and aliquid-crystal panel for showing various kinds of information to theoperator.

When the CPU 41 supplies information to be displayed on the display unit47 in dependence on a variety of operating conditions and a variety ofinput states to a display-processing unit 46, the display-processingunit 46 carries out operations to display the information on the displayunit 47 on the basis of display data supplied to the display-processingunit 46.

In accordance with control executed by the CPU 41, a database managementunit 48 carries out processing such as write/read access operations andsearch operations on the CD-information database 4, which is typicallyconstructed in an HDD or the like.

As described above, the CD-information database 4 is used for storing CDtitle information (or additional information) and content IDs for thetitle of each generally distributed CD.

A communication-processing unit 49 carries out processing to encode datato be transmitted and decode received data on the basis of controlexecuted by the CPU 41.

A network interface 50 transmits data encoded by thecommunication-processing unit 49 as data for transmission to apredetermined apparatus by way of the network 2. On the other hand, thenetwork interface 50 also receives a signal transmitted by an externalapparatus by way of the network 2 and passes on the signal to thecommunication-processing unit 49.

The communication-processing unit 49 transfers received information tothe CPU 41.

It is to be noted that, while the configuration has been described byreferring to FIG. 2 as the configuration of the CD-information server 3,the configuration shown in this figure can also be regarded as theconfigurations of the distribution server 5, the content server 7, thebroadcast-information server 9, the backup-service server 11 as well asa CD title information server 3 a and a content-ID server 3 b, whichwill be described later by referring to FIG. 10. That is to say, inorder for each particular one of the other servers to carry outoperations to be described later, it is necessary to merely installprograms for the particular server having the configuration shown in thefigure and construct a database necessary for each of the other serversas shown in FIG. 1.

3: Configuration of the Terminal

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the terminal 1.

A CPU 21 controls the whole terminal 1 and carries out processing on thebasis of an activated program. For example, the CPU 21 executesoperations of communication through the network 2, operations on inputsand outputs from and to the operator, operations to reproduce or rip acontent from a CD, operations to store a content into an HDD 31,operations to create and update management information, an operation tocreate a CD identifier to be used as content identification informationfor acquiring a content ID and data processing.

The CPU 21 exchanges control signals and data with other circuitcomponents through a bus 22.

A memory unit 23 comprehensively represents memories such as a RAM, aROM and a flash memory, which are used in processing carried out in theCPU 21.

The ROM of the memory unit 23 is used for storing, among others,operating programs of the CPU 21 and a program loader. The flash memoryof the memory unit 23 is used for storing, among others, a variety ofprocessing coefficients and parameters used in the programs. Areas areallocated temporarily in the RAM of the memory unit 23 to data used in aprogram being executed and a task.

Provided on the cabinet of the terminal 1, an input unit 25 includesoperation keys, a jog dial, a touch panel, a remote commander, a barcodescanner and other input devices. The input unit 25 receives a variety ofoperation and data inputs entered by the user of the terminal 1. Theinput unit 25 may also includes a keyboard and a mouse.

The information received by the input unit 25 is subjected to apredetermined process in an input-processing unit 24 before being passedon to the CPU 21. The CPU 21 executes necessary processing and controlfor the input information.

It is to be noted that, if a touch panel is employed as an input deviceof the input unit 25, a display unit 27 displays a picture as theso-called GUI (Graphical User Interface) for facilitating operations.The touch panel has a configuration in which, when means such a fingeror an input pen is applied to a position on the GUI picture, anoperation corresponding to the position is carried out.

In addition, if a barcode scanner is employed as an input device of theinput unit 25, the input unit 25 is capable of fetching for example abarcode appearing on the package (such as the album jacket) of a CD.

It is to be noted that, if the input unit 25 includes the ten keys, theuser can also enter a barcode number added to the display of a barcode.In place of the ten keys, the GUI screen may include a ten-key pictureallowing the user to enter a number by adoption of the touch-panelmethod. The barcode number is a number appearing beneath the barcode.

The display unit 27 includes display devices such as a liquid-crystalpanel for showing various kinds of information to the user.

When the CPU 21 supplies information to be displayed on the display unit27 in dependence on a variety of operating conditions and a variety ofinput states to a display-processing unit 26, the display-processingunit 26 carries out operations to display the information on the displayunit 27 on the basis of display data supplied to the display-processingunit 26.

In an operation to reproduce a content from a CD or a content from theHDD 31, information such as a track number, a performance time duration,an operating state and a volume is displayed. In addition, if CD titleinformation for the reproduced content has also been stored, variouskinds of information such as the title of the song and the name of anartist singing the song can also be displayed.

In addition, in a process to receive a content transmitted by radiocommunication, information including the reception frequency and thevolume is displayed.

Furthermore, a variety of operations to display information is carriedout in accordance with communications with the various servers describedabove.

Provided with an optical head, a spindle motor, a reproduced-signalprocessor and a servo circuit, a CD drive 29 reproduces a content from aCD.

A CD-drive control unit 28 controls the CD drive 29 to carry outprocessing such as write/read access operations and search operations onthe CD. When the user enters a command to carry out an operation toreproduce a content from the CD to the input unit 25, for example, theCPU 21 requests the CD-drive control unit 28 to reproduce the contentfrom the CD. In turn, the CD-drive control unit 28 controls the CD drive29 to make an access to the CD and reproduce the content from it.

The CD drive 29 decodes a signal read out from the CD to generatereproduced data and outputs the data to a bus 22 by way of the CD-drivecontrol unit 28.

The reproduced data is subjected to various kinds of processing in anaudio-data processor 34 before being output through a speaker 35. Theprocessing includes a sound-field process such as equalizing and otherprocesses such as volume adjustment, D/A conversion and amplification.

In addition, the data reproduced by the CD drive 29 can also betransferred to a database management unit 30 for carrying a necessaryfile-encoding process on the data before finally storing the data in theHDD 31 as a content file.

It is to be noted that, as is generally known, management informationcalled a TOC is recorded in advance on the innermost circumference of aCD. In an operation to reproduce a content from the CD, an access to atrack (or the content) on the disc is made on the basis of the TOC.Thus, when a CD is mounted on the terminal 1, the CD-drive control unit28 gives a command to the CD drive 29 to read out the TOC from the CD toget data of the fetched TOC so that an operation to reproduce a contentfrom the CD can be controlled.

A tuner 37 is typically an AM/FM radio tuner for demodulating abroadcast signal, which is received by an antenna 36, on the basis ofcontrol executed by the CPU 21. Of course, the tuner 37 can be atelevision tuner, a satellite-broadcast tuner or a digital-broadcasttuner.

A demodulated broadcast audio signal is subjected to necessaryprocessing in the audio-data processor 34 before being output from thespeaker 35 as a broadcast sound.

In accordance with control executed by the CPU 41, the databasemanagement unit 30 carries out write/read accesses to content files inthe HDD 31 and a management file also stored in the HDD 31 as a file formanaging the content files.

When a content reproduced by the CD drive 29 or a content downloadedfrom an external server is stored in the HDD 31 as a content file, amanagement file for the content file is also written into the HDD 31 oran existing management file is updated. As will be described later, themanagement file includes CD-title information and content IDs, which areacquired from the CD-information server 3.

In accordance with a command received from the CPU 21, the databasemanagement unit 30 is also capable of reading out a content file fromthe HDD 31 and transferring the file to the audio-data processor 34 foroutputting the content as a sound from the speaker 35.

It is to be noted that the HDD 31 is used of course not only as adatabase of content files as described above, but also as a storage areafor storing application programs to be activated by the CPU 21 andvarious kinds of data.

A communication-processing unit 32 carries out processing to encode datato be transmitted and decode received data on the basis of controlexecuted by the CPU 21.

A network interface 33 transmits data encoded by thecommunication-processing unit 32 as data for transmission to apredetermined apparatus by way of the network 2. On the other hand, thenetwork interface 33 also receives a signal transmitted by an externalapparatus by way of the network 2 and passes on the signal to thecommunication-processing unit 32.

The communication-processing unit 32 transfers received information tothe CPU 21.

It is to be noted that the configuration of the terminal 1 is notlimited to that shown in FIG. 3. That is to say, there is a number ofconceivable configurations, which can be adopted as a configuration ofthe terminal 1.

For example, other drives such as a DVD drive, an MD drive and a tapedrive can be employed to handle a variety of recording mediums. Inaddition, the terminal 1 can be provided with interfaces with peripheralequipment conforming to communication methods including the USB and theIEEE1394.

On the top of that, the terminal 1 can also be provided with terminalsfor connection with a microphone and a headphone, a video outputterminal for DVD reproduction, a line connection terminal and anopto-digital connection terminal.

Furthermore, a PCMCIA slot and a memory card slot can be created forcards for exchanging data with an external information-processingapparatus and an external audio apparatus.

4: CD-Information Database

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a model of CD information stored in theCD-information database 4 managed by the CD-information server 3.

The CD-information database 4 is used for storing information on a largenumber of CDs distributed in the market as package media. Pieces ofinformation #1, #2 . . . shown in FIG. 4 are each CD information for oneCD title.

A piece of CD information for a CD title includes a CD identifier uniqueto the CD title. As will be described later, in a communication with theterminal 1 through the network, the CD identifier is used as contentidentification information for identifying 1 content ID or a pluralityof content IDs.

A configuration for generating CD identifiers is made common to allapparatus connected to the network. Since a CD identifier for a CD titleis a code unique to the CD title, typical configurations for generatingCD identifiers can be conceived as follows.

Generation of a CD Identifier from TOC Data of the CD

The TOC data of a CD includes the number of tracks (or the number ofmusic contents), the address (or absolute time information) of each ofthe tracks and a performance time duration of each of the tracks. Thesepieces of data are normally provided as data common to discs having thesame title. There is never a case in which CDs having titles differentfrom each other all have the same pieces of data. Thus, a code unique toa CD title can be generated from the TOC data of the CD title.

For example, a unique code can be generated by extracting informationsuch as the number of the first track, the number of the last track, theaddress of each track and the performance time duration from the TOCdata and synthesizing these extracted values. As an alternative, aunique code is generated by carrying out special processing on each ofthe extracted values. The generated unique code is used as a CDidentifier.

Generation of a CD Identifier from ISRC Information

For each CD title, an ISRC code is assigned to the album of the CD titleor to each song of the CD title and recorded in the TOC. An ISRC codeassigned to a CD title is a code unique to the CD title. Thus, as a CDidentifier of a CD title, it is possible to use an ISRC code assigned tothe CD title or a result of processing carried out on the ISRC code.

Generation of a CD Identifier from a Barcode

A barcode used as product management information is printed on the albumjacket of each CD title. This barcode is assigned by a disc:manufacturer to a CD title as information unique to the CD title andused in product management and sales management. Thus, as a CDidentifier of a CD title, it is possible to use a barcode assigned tothe CD title or a result of processing carried out on the barcode.

Of course, it is possible to adopt a CD-identifier generationconfiguration other than the typical configurations described above. Forexample, a CD identifier can be generated by jointly adopting thetypical configurations described above. By adopting any of suchconfigurations for generating a CD identifier, for example, the terminal1 is thus capable of generating a CD identifier for each CD by adoptionof the same CD-identifier generation configuration. In this embodiment,the terminal 1 needs to generate a CD identifier to be used as contentidentification information. Thus, a CD identifier generated by adoptionof the CD-identifier generation configuration for each CD title isstored in advance in the CD-information database 4 as a CD identifierassociated with the CD title. Thus, when the terminal 1 generates a CDidentifier and transmits it to the CD-information server 3, theCD-information server 3 is capable of searching the CD-informationdatabase 4 on the basis of the CD identifier.

It is to be noted that the CD-information database 4 can conceivably beused for storing all CD identifiers generated by using a plurality ofCD-identifier generation configurations for each CD title. By storingall CD identifiers in this way, the CD-information server 3 is capablekeeping up with any a CD identifier generated by the terminal 1 byadoption of any of the CD-identifier generation configurations.

For each CD identifier, that is, for each CD title, the CD-informationdatabase 4 is also used for storing CD-title information and contentIDs.

The CD-title information for a CD title is various kinds of additionalinformation on data stored on the CD. Typically, the CD-titleinformation includes a CD-title name, the names of artists, the numberof recorded songs and the title of each content or each song.

A content ID is content identification information assigned to eachcontent or each song recorded on the CD as an identification unique tothe content.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of a file for storing aCD-title information and content IDs, which are associated with a CDidentifier. The data file shown in FIG. 5 is thus used for storinginformation for one CD album.

First of all, the CD-title information for the CD identifierrepresenting the whole CD is stored. The CD-title information includesthe CD title (or the name of the album), the name of artists, the numberof recorded songs and one piece of other additional information orvarious pieces of other additional information.

The other additional information cited above includes conceivable datasuch as a picture of the album jacket, pictures of artists, informationon relevant parties such as the name of the producer and the name of therecording company, a text describing the album and comments on thealbum, the Internet addresses (URLs) of homepages of the artists, therecording company or the like as well as information on a copyright.

Besides the additional information described above, the content ID ofeach of songs (that is, tracks TK1 to TKn) is stored for the CDidentifier.

For each content ID, additional information associated with a songidentified by the content ID is stored. The additional informationincludes the title of the song, the names of the artists and one pieceof other additional information or various pieces of other additionalinformation. The other additional information provided for each songincludes typically people relevant to the song, information on acopyright of the song, the lyrics of the song, comments on the song andimages for the song. The relevant people include the writer of thelyrics, the composer of the song and the producer.

As described above, the CD-information database 4 is used for storing aCD-title information and content IDs, which are associated with a CDtitle, in the file structure shown in FIG. 5.

It is to be noted that, in the above description, the CD-titleinformation for a CD identifier is information stored on the CD asinformation other than content IDs also stored on the CD for the same CDidentifier. On the other hand, the CD information is the generic name ofinformation including both the CD-title information and the content IDs.

By the way, a content ID assigned to each content representing a trackor a song recorded on the CD is an identifier unique to the song.

In the information distribution system implemented by this embodiment,content IDs are managed as IDs conforming to a rule of uniformity. Thatis to say, each of the content IDs is common to the terminal 1, theCD-information server 3 and the other servers of FIG. 1 and used asinformation for identifying a specific song.

The CD-information server 3 generates a code data unique to each songand assigns the code to the song as the content ID of the song. TheCD-information server 3 then provides the content ID to the otherservers. Thus, the other servers are each also capable of managing musiccontents by using such content IDs. In addition, a content ID can begenerated by an apparatus other than the CD-information server 3. Atleast, however, the CD-information server 3 is designated as anapparatus capable of managing content IDs. In this case, the managementexecuted by the CD-information server 3 is management to provide contentIDs to the terminal 1 or allow content IDs to be utilized by the otherservers.

In addition, as uniform content IDs managed in a wide range, content IDsprescribed by a CIDF (Content ID Forum) can also be used.

With the popularization of the Internet and improvements of technologiesfor coding digital data, the CIDF has been established as anorganization for enhancing the convenience of content distributions,facilitating the charging of content distribution fees to users,preventing copyrights from being infringed and avoiding illegal use ofcontents. The CIDF is an association for formulating a content-ID formatconsidering global standardization targeted for the every digitalcontents. Thus, the use of content IDs conforming to the content-IDformat developed by the CIDF is also effective for the informationdistribution system.

5: Information Stored in the HDD of the Terminal

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a model for the configuration of a filestored in the HDD 31 employed in the terminal 1.

As shown in the figure, in the terminal 1, a content (or a song) rippedfrom a CD can be stored into the HDD 31 as a content file. By the sametoken, a content downloaded from an external source by way of thenetwork 2 can also be stored into the HDD 31 as a content file.

Assume for example that 5 songs are ripped from a CD for storing 10songs. In this case, the 5 songs are stored in the HDD 31 as 5 contentfiles.

Then, the user can select a desired content file from a large number ofcontent files stored in the HDD 31 and reproduce the selected file.

A content-file group stored in the HDD 31 as shown in FIG. 6A is a groupincluding a large number of content files, which are each 1 songrecorded in the HDD 31. That is to say, the content-file group is agroup including a large number of content files each containing actualdata or music data.

On the other hand, a management-file group stored in the HDD 31 is agroup including a large number of management files for managing thecontent files.

FIG. 6B is a diagram showing a model of the management-file group.

A management file is management information for a CD distributed in themarket as package media. That is to say, management files #1, #2 . . .shown in FIG. 6B are each management information for 1 CD. As shown inthe figure, each piece of management information includes a CDidentifier as well as CD-title information and content IDs, which areassociated with the CD identifier.

However, management files #1, #2 . . . in the HDD 31 are each generatedfor a content file stored by the user in the HDD 31.

For example, assume that the user rips songs from a CD and stores eachof the songs recorded on the CD into the HDD 31 as a content file. Inthis case, a management file is generated for the CD and stored in theHDD 31.

In addition, assume for example that the user rips a song or a pluralityof songs selected among songs recorded on a CD from the CD and storeseach of the ripped songs into the HDD 31 as a content file. In thiscase, a management file is generated for the CD and stored in the HDD31.

Furthermore, assume that a content is downloaded from an external sourceby way of the network 2 and stored into the HDD 31. If a CD identifieris also received from the network 2, a management file associated withrecording media such as a CD for storing the downloaded content can begenerated and stored in the HDD 31.

The CD identifier included in each management file is informationindicating a CD from which the user ripped contents. As will bedescribed later, for example, the CD identifier is used as content-IDdetermination information in acquiring a content ID through acommunication with the CD-information server 3. That is to say, from theimplication point of view, the CD identifier is the same as a CDidentifier stored in the CD-information database 4 in the CD-informationserver 3.

Thus, the terminal 1 generates a CD identifier in the same generationconfiguration as the configuration to generate a CD identifier in theCD-information database 4. When content is ripped from a CD, forexample, a CD identifier is generated from the TOC data of the CD. As analternative, a CD identifier is generated from the ISRC information ofthe CD. As another alternative, a CD identifier is generated from abarcode printed on the CD. Of course, a CD identifier can be generatedby adopting a generation configuration other than these generationconfigurations as long as the generation configuration is the same asthe configuration to generate a CD identifier in the CD-informationserver 3.

As described above, each piece of management file includes a CDidentifier as well as CD-title information and content IDs, which areassociated with the CD identifier specifically each CD title.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the data structure of a management fileincluding a CD identifier as well as CD-title information and contentIDs, which are associated with the CD identifier. The management fileshown in FIG. 7 corresponds to 1 CD album. At least 1 content recordedin the CD album is stored in the HDD 31 as a content file. In somecases, however, none of the contents recorded in a CD album are storedin the HDD 31. For such a CD album, a management file can conceivably becreated in advance for contents ripped or downloaded later.

First of all, additional information for the CD identifier representingthe whole CD is stored. The additional information includes the CD title(or the title of the album), the name of artists, the number of recordedsongs and one piece of other additional information or various pieces ofother additional information.

The other additional information cited above includes conceivable datasuch as a picture of the album jacket, pictures of artists, informationon relevant parties such as the name of the producer and the name of therecording company, a text describing the album and comments on thealbum, the Internet addresses (URLs) of homepages of the artists, therecording company or the like as well as information on a copyright.

Besides the additional information described above, the content ID ofeach of songs (that is, tracks TK1 to TKn) is stored for the CDidentifier.

For each content ID, additional information associated with a songidentified by the content ID is stored. The additional informationincludes the title of the song, the names of the artists and one pieceof other additional information or various pieces of other additionalinformation. The other additional information provided for each songincludes typically people relevant to the song, information on acopyright of the song, the lyrics of the song, comments on the song andimages for the song. The relevant people include the writer of thelyrics, the composer of the song and the producer.

In addition, for each content ID, content-file link information andinformation on the source of the content are stored.

The content-file link information for a content ID is informationindicating a content file stored in the HDD 31 as a file containingactual data of a content indicated by the content ID. Thus, since thecontent-file link information indicates a constant file containing acontent indicated by the content ID, the content stored in the HDD 31can be specified from the management file and as a content to bereproduced.

It is to be noted that a content file containing actual data of acontent indicated by the content ID may not be stored in the HDD 31. Inthis case, the content-file link information states ‘No link’ allowingthe non-existence of the content file in the HDD 31 to be confirmed fromthe management file.

The information on the content source is information indicating thesource of the content file stored in the HDD 31. Since a content filestored in the HDD 31 is a content ripped from a CD or a content filedownloaded from an external server, the information on the contentsource distinguishes a ripped and downloaded contents from each otherand, in the case of a downloaded content, identifies a server, fromwhich the content has been downloaded.

As described above, a management file of the HDD 31 is associated with 1CD title (or 1 CD identifier) and used for storing CD-title informationand content IDs, which are associated with the CD title, in the datastructure shown in FIG. 7.

In the case of the content file of a content ripped from a CD and storedin the terminal 1, the terminal 1 is capable of generating a CDidentifier from the TOC information of the CD, from which the contenthas been reproduced.

As described above, however, a content ID is managed as an ID conformingto a rule of uniformity and generated by the CD-information server 3. Acontent ID may also be an ID conforming to the CIDF. Thus, a content IDis not an ID freely assignable to a content file of a content rippedfrom a CD. In addition, CD-title information cannot be obtained by theterminal 1 unless the user enters the information to the terminal 1.

For the reason described above, the terminal 1 transmits a generated CDidentifier to the CD-information server 3 at a ripping time as will bedescribed later. Then, for the transmitted CD identifier, the terminal 1receives a content ID and CD-title information from the CD-informationserver 3 so that the terminal 1 is capable of creating a management filelike the one shown in FIG. 7 to be used for managing the stored contentfile.

In addition, in the case of a downloaded content, if a content ID andadditional information are also received in the downloading process, itis possible to construct a management file including the content ID andthe additional information.

It is to be noted that, in the case of a content ripped from a CD orother recording media, a management file can be created as a unitcorresponding to a CD identifier or a media identifier. In the case of adownloaded content from external servers, however, it is not alwayspossible to build a management file for each recording medium.

Thus, if a management file cannot be built for each recording medium,the management file is built, being associated with at least a contentID so that the management file can be used for managing the storedcontent file.

6: Processing Carried Out when Mounting a CD on the Terminal

In this embodiment, a content file stored in the HDD 31 employed in theterminal 1 is managed by using a content ID included in a managementfile as shown in FIG. 7. In an operation to rip a content from a CD,however, its content ID and its CD-title information (or its additionalinformation) cannot be obtained by only the terminal 1. Thus, theterminal 1 requests the CD-information server 3 to transmit the contentID and the CD-title information.

By referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, the following description explainsprocessing, which is carried out after a CD is mounted on the CD drive29 employed in the terminal 1 as processing including the operation ofrequesting the CD-information server 3 to transmit the content ID andthe CD-title information. This processing is implemented as controlexecuted by the CPU 21 and operations carried out by other components onthe basis of the control.

It is to be noted that the following description explains typicalprocessing in which a CD identifier for a CD is generated from TOC dataof the CD.

As shown in FIG. 8, when a CD is mounted on the CD drive 29 employed inthe terminal 1, at a step F101 of a flowchart shown in the figure, theCPU 21 gives a command to the CD-drive control unit 28 to read out TOCdata of the CD first of all.

The TOC data read out from the CD is held in the CD-drive control unit28 or the CPU 21 as management information for later reproduction ofdata from the CD. Then, at the next step F102, the CPU 21 determines aCD identifier of the CD. To put it in detail, the CPU 21 extractsinformation such as a track number and the address of the track from theTOC data, and carries out particular processing on the extractedinformation to generate a CD identifier unique to the CD.

It is to be noted that, as described before, a CD identifier may also begenerated from an ISRC code included in the TOC data. As anotheralternative, at this point of time or a point of time a content isripped from the CD, the user is requested to enter a barcode of the CDand a CD identifier is generated from the barcode. As describedpreviously, the barcode can also be input by using a bar-code scanner orby allowing the user to enter a number representing the barcode.

Then, at the next step F103, the database management unit 30 searchesthe HDD 31 on the basis of the CD identifier for a management fileincluding the CD identifier and a result of the search is examined todetermine whether or not a management file for the mounted CD hasalready been stored in the HDD 31.

If the mounted CD is a CD experiencing a ripping process in the past, amanagement file for the mounted CD has already been stored in the HDD31. Even if the mounted CD is not a CD experiencing a ripping process inthe past, a content recorded on the CD may have been downloaded from anexternal server along with a CD identifier, additional information andthe content ID. In this case, a management file for the mounted CD mayhave already been stored in the HDD 31.

If a management file for the mounted CD has already been stored in theHDD 31, the flow of the processing goes on to a step F104 at which theCD information is displayed on the display unit 27. For example,information stored in the HDD 31 as additional information shown in FIG.7 can be displayed. As shown in the figure, the additional informationtypically includes the title of the album, the title of the song, thename of an artist and a jacket image. In this case, the CPU 21 reads outvarious kinds of additional information from the HDD 31 and supplies theinformation to the display-processing unit 26 to be displayed.

If a management file for the mounted CD has not been stored in the HDD31, on the other hand, the flow of the processing goes on to a step F105at which information based on the TOC data is displayed since themanagement file for the mounted CD is not available. To put itconcretely, the CPU 21 supplies display information obtained from theTOC data to the display-processing unit 26, which then displaysinformation such as track numbers and total performance time durationson the display unit 27.

At steps F106 and F108, the terminal 1 is waiting for the user to carryout an operation, which is an operation to reproduce or rip a contentfrom the CD.

If the user carries out an operation to reproduce a content from the CD,the flow of the processing goes on from the step F106 to a step F107 atwhich the content is reproduced from the CD. That is to say, the CPU 21gives a command to the CD-drive control unit 28 to control the CD drive29 to execute a process of reproducing a track specified in accordancewith the operation carried out by the user on the input unit 25.

When the user carries out an end operation or when reproduction of allsongs from the CD has been completed, the flow of the processing goesback of the loop consisting of the steps F106, F107 and F108 to wait forthe user to carry out a next operation.

If the user carries out an operation to rip all songs or some songs fromthe CD to the HDD 31, on the other hand, the flow of the processing goeson from the step F108 to a step F109 at which the CPU 21 carries out aprocess to rip the specified songs.

That is to say, the CPU 21 gives a command to the CD-drive control unit28 to control the CD drive 29 to execute a process of reproducing atrack or a plurality of tracks. Then, the audio data of the tracksreproduced by the CD drive 29 is transferred to the database managementunit 30. Subsequently, the CPU 21 gives a command to the databasemanagement unit 30 to store the audio data of each of the tracks in theHDD 31 as a content file.

In the operation to store such content files, at a step F110, the CPU 21determines whether or not a management file for the CD has been storedin the HDD 31. That is to say, the same processing as the step F103 iscarried out. If a ripping operation has been carried out at least twiceafter the CD was mounted on the CD drive 29, a management file may befound at the step F110 in some cases even though a management file wasnot found at the step F103.

If a management file for the content files written into the HDD 31 hasnot been stored in the HDD 31, the flow of the processing goes on to astep F111 at which a process to generate a management file is carriedout. If a management file for the content file written into the HDD 31has been stored in the HDD 31, on the other hand, the flow of theprocessing goes on to a step F112 at which the management file isupdated.

After the content files are written into the HDD 31 and a managementfile is generated or updated, the ripping operation is completed. Then,the flow of the processing goes back of the loop consisting of the stepsF106, F107 and F108 to wait for the user to carry out a next operation.

It is to be noted that an operation to eject the mounted CD may becarried out during execution of the loop consisting of the steps F106and F107 even though this operation is not shown in the figure. If theCD is ejected, the execution of the processing represented by theflowchart shown in FIG. 8 is ended.

The process carried out at the step F111 to generate a management fileis explained by referring to FIG. 9.

The CPU 21 executes a procedure 91 of this process in order to issue acommand to the communication-processing unit 32 to establish acommunication with the CD-information server 3 through the network 2 bytransmitting a request for establishment of the communication to theCD-information server 3. As the communication is established, the CDidentifier obtained at the step F102 is transmitted to theCD-information server 3 as a signal making a request for information onthe CD identified by the CD identifier.

The communication-processing unit 49 employed in the CD-informationserver 3 also carries out a process to establish a communication inresponse to a request received from the terminal 1 as a request forestablishment of the communication. As the request signal including theCD identifier is received from the terminal 1, the CPU 41 employed inthe CD-information server 3 issues a command to the database managementunit 48 to search the CD-information database 4 on the basis of the CDidentifier for information associated with the CD identifier.

Thus, the CD-information server 3 executes a procedure S11 to search theCD-information database 4 for CD information. As explained earlier byreferring to FIGS. 4 and 5, for each CD identifier, the CD-informationdatabase 4 includes CD information including CD-title information andthe content ID of every song recorded on the CD identified by the CDidentifier. In this procedure, the CD-information database 4 is searchedon the basis of the CD identifier for CD information associated with thereceived CD identifier. The CD information found in the search isextracted and read out from the CD-information database 4.

After the CD information like the one shown in FIG. 5 is extracted fromthe CD-information database 4 as CD information associated with the CDidentifier, the CPU 41 executes the next procedure S12 to transmit theCD information to the terminal 1 as a result of the search. To put it indetail, the communication-processing unit 32 transmits information on asuccessful completion of the search or a search error as the result ofthe search to the terminal 1 and, in the case of a successful completionof the search, the communication-processing unit 32 also transmits theCD-title information and the content ID to the terminal 1.

After the CD-title information and the content ID are received as theresult of the search, the terminal 1 executes a procedure S2 to generatea management file. Associated with the CD identifier, the managementfile includes CD-title information and the content ID of each song asshown in FIG. 7. In addition, content-file link information is set foreach content ID stored in the HDD 31 as information showing a link to acontent file of a content identified by the content ID. On the top ofthat, content-source information is added for each content ID asinformation indicating a CD from which a content identified by thecontent ID has been ripped.

The management file generated as a file having the structure shown inFIG. 7 as described above is then written into the HDD 31.

By carrying out the processing described above, content files alsostored in the HDD 31 can be managed by using content IDs managed as IDsconforming to a rule of uniformity even if the content files have beenripped from a CD in the terminal 1.

As will be described later, since content files can be managed by usingcontent IDs managed as IDs conforming to a rule of uniformity, themanagement of the content files is suitable for, among others, a case inwhich it is desired to acquire information related to a content from anexternal server.

Also as will be described later, a display suitable for the user canalso be shown to the user. An example of the display is the display of alist of downloadable contents.

By the way, the CD information obtained by the terminal 1 through thecommunications shown in FIG. 9 is information on a CD identified by a CDidentifier and includes the content ID of every song recorded on the CDand its additional information.

Thus, even if only some of songs recorded on a CD are ripped in theterminal 1, for example, content IDs of all songs and their additionalinformation can be obtained. In other words, content IDs of songs notripped and their additional information are also included in themanagement file.

Assume for example that only the second track is ripped from a CDcontaining 10 songs.

In this case, the CD-information server 3 transmits content IDs of allsongs and their additional information to the terminal 1 through thecommunications shown in FIG. 9.

Thus, in the procedure S2, a process to correctly associate a rippedcontent file with one of the content IDs is carried out. To be morespecific, since the second song (or the second track) is ripped, the CPU21 associates the content file of the second song with a receivedcontent ID and received additional information, which are the content IDof the second track and its additional information respectively. In thetypical CD information shown in FIG. 7, the ripped content file isassociated with the TK2 content ID and, for this content ID,content-file link information indicating the content file is written.

In addition, content-file link information corresponding to a contentfile not ripped from the CD is set at ‘no-link’ data.

As described above, even if only some of songs recorded on a CD areripped, content IDs of all songs and their additional information can beobtained so that the created management file is useful for laterprocessing.

Consider for example a case in which, after the second track has beenripped as described above, another track is ripped from the same CD. Inthis case, the determination result produced at the step F110 of theflowchart shown in FIG. 8 indicates that a management file alreadyexists. That is to say, the content IDs of all songs including theripped song and their additional information have already been stored inthe HDD 31.

Thus, in this case, it is not necessary to obtain information on the CDthrough the communications shown in FIG. 9. That is to say, in thiscase, the flow of the processing goes on to the step F112 at which themanagement information needs to be merely updated. To put it concretely,information indicating the other ripped content file written into theHDD 31 is added to the management information as content-file linkinformation associated with a content ID of the other ripped track. Inaddition, information indicating that the content identified by thecontent ID is a content ripped from a CD is added to the managementinformation as content-source information associated with the contentID.

Furthermore, even in the case of a CD from which at least 1 song hasbeen ripped, additional information for all songs is provided to theterminal 1. Thus, when the CD is mounted on the terminal 1, at the stepF104, the titles of all the songs and the CD-title information of the CDcan be displayed to the user.

7: System Including a CD Title Information Server and a Content IDServer

By the way, in the information distribution system shown in FIG. 1, theCD-information server 3 must manage CD-title information and contentIDs.

On the other hand, many CD title information servers exist as serverseach used for rendering services to distribute CD-title information. Ifthis CD title information server is to be used as the CD-informationserver 3 shown in FIG. 1, it will be necessary to add content IDs to thedatabase of the CD title information server. Thus, the construction ofthe information distribution system will incur a high cost and requiremuch labor.

In order to solve this problem, a CD title information server 3 a isused in the information distribution system implemented by thisembodiment as it is and, in order to allow content IDs to be used as IDsconforming to a rule of uniformity, a conceivable content ID server 3 bis added besides the CD title information server 3 a as shown in FIG.10.

In this configuration, as shown in FIG. 11 a, the CD title informationserver 3 a has a CD title information database 4 a for storing CD-titleinformation for each CD identifier representing the title of a generallydistributed CD. The CD-title information for a CD identifier identifyinga CD includes the title of the album and the name of artists for theentire CD as well as the title and composer name of each song recordedon the CD.

However, the CD-title information does not include a content ID.

As shown in FIG. 11 b, on the other hand, the content-ID server 3 b hasa content-ID database 4 b for storing content IDs for each CD identifierrepresenting the title of a generally distributed CD. However, thecontent-ID database 4 b does not include additional information for eachcontent even though additional information can be stored as well.

It is to be noted that the CD title information server 3 a and thecontent-ID server 3 b can have the same configuration as theCD-information server 3 explained earlier by referring to FIG. 2.

By incorporating the content-ID server 3 b in an informationdistribution system, the CD title information server 3 a can be utilizedin the system as it is to provide the same operations as those of thisembodiment.

For example, the process carried out by the terminal 1 to generate amanagement file at the step F111 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 8 isimplemented as shown in FIG. 12 or 13.

First of all, typical operations shown in FIG. 12 are explained.

In a procedure S1 of this process, the CPU 21 issues a command to thecommunication-processing unit 32 to establish a communication with theCD title information server 3 a through the network 2 by transmitting arequest for establishment of the communication to the CD titleinformation server 3 a. As the communication is established, the CDidentifier obtained at the step F102 is transmitted to the CD titleinformation server 3 a as a signal making a request for information onthe CD identified by the CD identifier.

The CD title information server 3 a also carries out a process toestablish a communication in response to a request received from theterminal 1 as a request for establishment of the communication. As therequest signal including the CD identifier is received from the terminal1, the CD title information server 3 a executes a procedure S10 totransmit a signal including the CD identifier to the content-ID server 3b as a request for a content ID.

In addition to the transmission of the request signal, the CD titleinformation server 3 a also executes a procedure S11 to search the CDtitle information database 4 a like the one shown in FIG. 11A on thebasis of the CD identifier for CD-title information associated with theCD identifier received from the terminal 1.

In the mean time, when the content-ID server 3 b receives the signalincluding the CD identifier as a signal making a request for a contentID from the CD title information server 3 a, the content-ID server 3 bexecutes a procedure S21 to search the content-ID database 4 b like theone shown in FIG. 11B on the basis of the CD identifier for the contentID associated with the CD identifier.

Then, the content-ID server 3 b executes a procedure S22 to transmit thecontent ID as a result of the search to the CD title information server3 a. In actuality, the content-ID server 3 b transmits the content IDsof all songs recorded on the CD identified by the CD identifier.

The CD title information server 3 a then receives the content IDs fromthe content-ID server 3 b. These content IDs are contents IDs of songsrecorded on a CD, the CD-title information of which has been found inthe search operation of the procedure S11.

Then, the CD title information server 3 a executes a procedure S12 totransmit CD information like the one shown in FIG. 5 as results of thesearch operations to the terminal 1. As shown in the figure, the CDinformation includes the CD-title information and the content IDs.

As a result, the terminal 1 is capable of receiving the CD-titleinformation and the content IDs and, hence, capable of generating amanagement file by execution of a procedure S2. As shown in FIG. 7, themanagement file associated with the CD identifier includes the CD-titleinformation and the content IDs of songs recorded on the CD identifiedby the CD identifier. In addition, for each of the content IDs, themanagement file also includes content-file link information andcontent-source information as shown in FIG. 7. The generated managementfile is then written into the HDD 31.

Next, typical operations shown in FIG. 13 are explained.

In this case, in a procedure S1A, the CPU 21 establishes a communicationwith the CD title information server 3 a through the network 2 bytransmitting a request for establishment of the communication to the CDtitle information server 3 a. As the communication is established, theCD identifier obtained at the step F102 is transmitted to the CD titleinformation server 3 a as a signal making a request for information onthe CD identified by the CD identifier. In this case, however, therequested information on the CD includes only CD-title information andno content IDs.

The CD title information server 3 a also carries out a process toestablish a communication in response to a request received from theterminal 1 as a request for establishment of the communication. As therequest signal including the CD identifier is received from the terminal1, the CD title information server 3 a executes a procedure S11 tosearch the CD title information database 4 a like the one shown in FIG.11A on the basis of the CD identifier for the CD-title informationassociated with the CD identifier received from the terminal 1.

Then, the CD title information server 3 a executes a procedure S12 totransmit the CD-title information obtained as a result of the search tothe terminal 1.

Thus, the terminal 1 is capable of receiving the album title of theripped CD and names of songs recorded on the CD as the CD-titleinformation.

Subsequently, in a procedure S1B, the CPU 21 establishes a communicationwith the content-ID server 3 b through the network 2 by transmitting arequest for establishment of the communication to the content-ID server3 b. As the communication is established, the CD identifier obtained atthe step F102 is transmitted to the content-ID server 3 b as a signalmaking a request for information on the CD identified by the CDidentifier. In this case, however, the requested information on the CDincludes only content IDs.

As the request signal including the CD identifier is received from theterminal 1, the content-ID server 3 b executes a procedure S21 to searchthe content-ID database 4 b like the one shown in FIG. 11B on the basisof the CD identifier for content IDs associated with the CD identifierreceived from the terminal 1.

As a result of the search is obtained, the content-ID server 3 bexecutes a procedure S22 to transmit the result of the search to theterminal 1. The result of the search is the content IDs of all songsrecorded on the CD identified by the CD identifier.

As a result of the communications described above, the terminal 1 iscapable of receiving the CD-title information and the content IDs and,hence, capable of generating a management file by execution of aprocedure S2. As shown in FIG. 7, the management file associated withthe CD identifier includes the CD-title information and the content IDsof songs recorded on the CD identified by the CD identifier. Inaddition, for each of the content IDs, the management file also includescontent-file link information and content-source information as shown inFIG. 7. The generated management file is then written into the HDD 31.

By carrying out communication processing like the one shown in FIG. 12or 13, for example, the terminal 1 is capable of receiving CD-titleinformation originated by the CD title information server 3 a andcontent IDs originated by the content-ID server 3 b.

In a system configuration like the one shown in FIG. 10, the CD titleinformation server 3 a (employing the CD title information database 4 a)can thus be utilized as it is.

While the content-ID server 3 b and the content-ID database 4 b are eacha newly constructed system element, it is not necessary to manageCD-title information as additional information by using the content-IDserver 3 b and the content-ID database 4 b. Thus, the content-ID server3 b and the content-ID database 4 b can be constructed and operatedrelatively with ease.

8: The Distribution Server, the Content Server and a Song List

The following description explains operations carried out by the user ofthe terminal 1 to download a music content through the network 2.

In this case, the terminal 1 carries out communications with thedistribution server 5 and the content server 7, which are shown in FIG.1.

The distribution server 5 is a server for executing management todistribute music contents worth charging for and charge-free contents.On the other hand, the content server 8 is a server actually managingactual music contents and distributing a music content to the terminal 1in accordance with a command received from the distribution server 5.

The song-list database 6 managed by the distribution server 5 as shownin FIG. 1 is used for storing song lists #1, #2 . . . as shown in FIG.14A.

A song list is a list of music contents. A song list is shown to theuser to allow the user to select a content among those on the list as acontent to be downloaded.

The song list data #1, #2 . . . constitutes typically each a list ofmusic contents of the same genre or music contents sung by the sameartist. The song list data can be created arbitrarily in thedistribution server 5 as a list of music contents, which are recommendedto the user as contents to be purchased.

A song-list data identifier is assigned to each piece of the song listdata #1, #2 . . . as an identifier for managing the lists. Each piece ofthe song list data #1, #2 . . . includes data of a song-list title anddata associated with the content ID of every music content cataloged onthe list.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the data structure of a piece of the songlist data #x stored in the song-list database 6. As shown in the figure,a song-list identifier is assigned to the song list data, which includesinformation of the song-list title and data associated with the contentID of every music content cataloged on the list, corresponding to thesong-list identifier.

The information of the song-list title is various kinds of additionalinformation on the song list. A content ID is a content identifierassigned uniquely to each music content (or a song) cataloged on thesong list. The content IDs are managed by the CD-information server 3 orthe content-ID server 3 b as IDs conforming to a rule of uniformity.

As shown in FIG. 15, in the first place, additional information asinformation of the song-list title corresponding to the whole song listis stored. The additional information of the song-list title includesthe title of the song list (or the song-list title), the names ofartists, the number of music contents cataloged on the song list and onepiece of other additional information or a plurality of pieces ofadditional information having different types.

The pieces of additional information include conceivable data such as aguide of the song list, pictures for the music contents cataloged on thesong list and/or the artists of the music contents, information onrelevant people and information on copyrights.

In addition, content IDs of music contents cataloged on the song listare included on the song list as IDs associated with the song-listidentifier. Additional information, as information of the song-listtitle of each song, associated with each content ID is stored. Theadditional information includes the song title, the name of an artistfor the music content and one piece of other additional information or aplurality of pieces of additional information having different types.The pieces of other additional information for the music content includeinformation on relevant people such as the lyrics writer, the songcomposer and the producer, information on a copyright, the lyrics,comments and images. In addition, the URL of a content server actuallymanaging and distributing the content data of the song is included.

It is to be noted that, in FIG. 15, the information of the song-listtitle in the above description is auxiliary information other than thedata of the content IDs associated with the same song-list identifier.The song-list information is a generic name representing both the dataof the song-list title and the data of the content IDs.

The content database 8 managed by the content server 7 as shown in FIG.1 is used for storing content data in a data structure shown in FIG.14B. As shown in the figure, entries #1, #2 . . . each include a contentID and content data identified by the content ID. The content IDs inthis case are managed by the CD-information server 3 or the content-IDserver 3 b as IDs conforming to a rule of uniformity.

9: Processing to Display a Song List in the Terminal

The terminal 1 displays a song list managed by the distribution server 5as described above on the display unit 27 so as to allow the user of theterminal 1 to arbitrarily select a music content and download theselected content. In particular, if the display of a song list alsoincludes information showing the user whether or not each of the musiccontents on the song list has been stored in the HDD 31 employed in theterminal 1, the user can be prevented from again mistakenly downloadinga music content already owned by the user as a content stored in the HDD31. In addition, the information indicating whether or not each of themusic contents on the song list has been stored in the HDD 31 alsoserves as effective information for verifying music contents owned bythe user.

It is to be noted that, conceivably, the terminal 1 or the distributionserver 5 is capable of determining whether or not each of the musiccontents on the song list has been stored in the HDD 31. First of all,the following description explains an embodiment in which the terminal 1determines whether or not each of the music contents on the song listhas been stored in the HDD 31.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing flows of communication processing from anoperation to make a request for a song list to an operation to downloada music content on the song list. It is to be noted that the processingshown in FIG. 16 as processing of the terminal 1 is processes carriedout by the communication-processing unit 32 and the database managementunit 30 in accordance with control executed by the CPU 21 asimplementation of operations performed by the user. In addition, theconfigurations of the distribution server 5 and the content server 7 areall but the same as the configuration of the CD-information server 3explained earlier by referring to FIG. 2. That is to say, processing ofthe distribution server 5 is processes carried out by acommunication-processing unit and a database management unit inaccordance with control executed by a CPU. By the same token, processingof the content server 7 is processes carried out by acommunication-processing unit and a database management unit inaccordance with control executed by a CPU.

In accordance with an operation carried out by the user to display asong list, the terminal 1 executes a procedure S31 to transmit a signalto the distribution server 5 as a request for the song list.

It is to be noted that the above description has been made simple. Inactuality, at the first stage, a request for a list of song liststhemselves is made and the user selects a desired song list beforemaking the above request for the song list. In this way, a list menu isconceivably divided into hierarchical list displays.

Thus, the song list requested in the procedure S31 shown in FIG. 16 is asong list selected by the user from a song-list menu received from thedistribution server at the preceding stage. That is to say, thisprocedure represents an operation in which the CPU 21 employed in theterminal 1 transmits the song-list identifier of the selected song listto the distribution server 5 as a signal making a request for theselected song list.

When the distribution server 5 receives the signal making a request fora song list, the distribution server 5 executes a procedure S41 tosearch the song-list database 6 having a data structure like the oneshown in FIG. 14A on the basis of the song-list identifier for a songlist identified by the song-list identifier represented by the requestsignal. Then, the distribution server 5 executes a procedure S42 totransmit to the terminal 1 song-list information having a data structurelike the one shown in FIG. 15 as a result of the search.

When the terminal 1 receives the song-list information, the terminal 1executes a procedure S32 to examine every music content on the song listin order to determine whether or not every music content has been storedin the HDD 31 and display the song list on the display unit 27 alongwith an examination result indicating whether or not every music contenton the song list has been stored in the HDD 31.

Processing of the procedure S32 is explained by referring to FIGS. 17and 18.

At a step F201 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 17, the CPU 21 sets avariable i at 1. Then, at the next step F202, the variable i is examinedto determine whether or not the variable i has exceeded the number ofmusic contents on the song list.

If the variable i has not exceeded the number of music contents on thesong list, the flow of the processing goes on to a step F203 at which agroup of management files stored in the HDD 31 is searched on the basisof the ith CD content for a management file including the same IDcontent as the ith content ID on the received song list information.

It is to be noted that, as described above, the content ID of a contentnot stored yet in the HDD 31 may be included in a management file insome cases. For this reason, if a management file including the ithcontent ID on the song list information is found in the search of themanagement-file group, the content-file link information associated withthe content ID as explained earlier by referring to FIG. 7 is referredto. A content-file link information set at ‘no link’ indicates that theith content ID is the content ID of a content not stored yet in the HDD31.

That is to say, a result of the search processing carried out at thestep F203 may indicate that there is no management file including thesame content ID as the ith content ID on the received song listinformation or may indicate that there is a management file includingthe same content ID as the ith content ID on the received song listinformation, but the content-file link information for the same contentID is set at ‘no link’. In this case, the content identified by the ithcontent ID on the song list information is determined to be a contentnot stored yet in the HDD 31.

At a step F204, the result of the search processing is examined todetermine whether or not the content identified by the ith content ID onthe song list information has been stored in the HDD 31. If the resultof the determination indicates that the content identified by the ithcontent ID on the song list information has not been stored in the HDD31, the flow of the processing goes on to a step F205 at which a phrasestating: “A song not owned yet by the user” is displayed for the ithcontent ID.

If the result of the determination indicates that the content identifiedby the ith content ID on the song list information has been stored inthe HDD 31, on the other hand, the flow of the processing goes on fromthe step F204 to a step F206 at which a phrase stating: “A song alreadyowned by the user” is displayed for the ith content ID.

The processing described above is carried out repeatedly whileincrementing the variable i at a step F207 till the determination resultproduced at the step F202 indicates that the variable i has exceeded thenumber of music contents on the song list. That is to say, the terminal1 determines whether or not a content identified by every content ID onthe song-list information like the one shown in FIG. 15 has been storedin the HDD 31.

As the processing represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 17 isended, a typical screen shown in FIG. 18 is displayed as a screen basedon the received song-list information.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a typical display of song-list information.As an example, the typical display shows received song-list informationwith a title of “10 Selected Jazz Songs Recommended by the Store Managerof a Site.”

As shown in the figure, for example, 4 song titles on the top of thesong list are displayed. Remaining song titles can be displayed byscrolling the screen upward. The song list information includes the songtitle and the name of an artist for each song. Thus, data included inthe song-list information as shown in FIG. 15 is displayed.

For each music content, ‘Purchase’ and ‘Trial listening’-desiring iconsare displayed. When the user clicks the Purchase icon, the music contentassociated with the icon is downloaded to the terminal 1. When the userclicks the ‘Trial listening’ icon on the other hand, the user is allowedto listen to some of the music content associated with the icon as atrial for, among others, a verification purpose before the content isdownloaded to the terminal 1. In this case, data for the trial-listeningpurpose is downloaded to the terminal 1 and reproduced thereby. It is tobe noted that the click operation can also be an operation to touch thescreen panel and an operation to enter a number assigned to the desiredmusic content.

Assume for example that the second and fourth music contents on the songlist have been determined to be songs, the data of which has been storedin the HDD 31. In this case, the Purchase icons for the second andfourth music contents are put in an inactive state not allowing a clickoperation to be carried out as shown in the figure. In this way, theuser can verify that it is not necessary to purchase these musiccontents since they have been stored in the HDD 31. In addition, byputting the Purchase icons in an inactive state, the user can beprevented from clicking the icons to mistakenly purchase the musiccontents for the second time.

It is to be noted that there is a number of other conceivable displayconfigurations for indicating whether or not a music content on a songlist has been stored in the HDD 31. For example, for a music contentalready stored in the HDD 31, a phrase stating: “Already stored in theHDD” or a message similar to the phrase can also be displayed.

As described above, for a music content already stored in the HDD 31,the Purchase icon is put in an inactive state. In some conceivablecases, however, the user wants to again download a music content eventhough the user knows that the music content has been stored in the HDD31. Thus, in such cases, in addition to the displayed message stating:“Already stored in the HDD,” the Purchase icon is also displayed in anactive state.

As a conceivable alternative, it is not specially necessary to display amessage on the screen like the one shown in FIG. 18 as a messageindicating that a music content has been stored in the HDD 31. In thiscase, however, when the user clicks the Purchase icon for a musiccontent already stored in the HDD 31, for example, a confirmation querytypically saying: “Are you sure to again download an already storedmusic content?” can also be displayed on a screen for confirmingexecution of the process to download the music content. In this way, theuser is allowed to select cancellation or execution of the process todownload the music content.

By displaying a song list as described above, the user can carry out anoperation to download a desired music content on the song list afterconfirming that the desired music content has not been stored in the HDD31. Thus, a music content already stored in the HDD 31 can be preventedfrom being downloaded again only because the user forgets that the useralready has the content.

When the user carries out an operation to purchase a desired musiccontent on the song list as a procedure S33 shown in FIG. 16 afterverification of the music content, the CPU 21 executes a procedure S34to transmit a request to the content server 7 as a request for thedesired content or a request to download the content to the terminal 1.

To put it concretely, for the music content desired by the user, the CPU21 fetches the URL of the content server 7 from the song-listinformation and transmits the content ID of the desired content to theURL.

Receiving the signal making a request for the content, the contentserver 7 executes a procedure S51 to search the content database 8 likethe one shown in FIG. 14B on the basis of the content ID for a musiccontent identified by the content ID received as the request for thecontent. Then, the content server 7 executes a procedure S52 to downloadthe music content found in the search to the terminal 1.

It is to be noted that, after completing the operation to download themusic content, the content server 7 executes a procedure S53 to carryout a process to charge a downloading fee to the user of the terminal 1.However, this process to charge a downloading fee to the user of theterminal 1 can also be carried out by the distribution server 5.

Receiving the downloaded music content from the content server 7, theterminal 1 executes a procedure S35 to store the content into the HDD 31as a content file.

Then, the terminal 1 executes a procedure S36 to generate a managementfile for the music content recorded this time or to update an existingmanagement file for the content.

If the content ID of the downloaded music content recorded this time isfound in the processing represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 17 tobe the content ID included in none of management files stored in the HDD31, a new management file is generated for the music content.

In this case, instead of generating a management file for a CDidentified by a CD identifier as described above, a management file tobe managed by using the content ID is generated. Such a management filemay include additional information such as the title of the song on thesong list information.

It is to be noted that the content server 7 holds music contents alongwith their additional information. If the additional information is alsodownloaded to the terminal 1 along with a music content associated withthe information, various kinds of additional information not included inthe song-list information can also be recorded in the management filefor the content ID.

If the song-list information (or data downloaded from the content data)includes the CD identifier of a CD containing the downloaded musiccontent, the new management file can be created as a management filewith a configuration associated with the CD identifier as shown in FIG.7.

In this case, the CD identifier is transmitted to the CD-informationserver 3 as a request for various kinds of additional informationcorresponding to the CD identifier and content IDs of other music datarecorded on the CD.

In addition, even if the song list or others do not include the CDidentifier, the content ID can be transmitted to the CD-informationserver 3 as a request for a search of a database for the otherinformation. In this case the CD-information server 3 searches theCD-information database 4 having data structures like the ones shown inFIGS. 4 and 5 on the basis of the content ID for a file containing thecontent ID. Then, the CD-information server 3 transmits the CDidentifier identifying a CD containing the music content identified bythe content ID, content IDs of other music contents recorded on the CDand additional information of the other music contents to the terminal 1as results of the search. On the basis of these received results of thesearch, the terminal 1 is capable of generating a management file havingthe configuration shown in FIG. 7 in a process to download a desiredmusic content as a management file identical with a management filegenerated in a process to rip a desired music content from a CD asdescribed earlier.

If the content ID of a downloaded music content is determined in theprocessing represented by the flowchart shown in FIG. 17 to be thecontent ID included in a management file already stored in the HDD 31,it is not necessary to generate a new management file for thedownloading process carried out this time. That is to say, it isnecessary only to update the management file already stored in the HDD31.

To put it in detail, when the downloaded music content is recorded intothe HDD 31, the management file is updated by cataloging the content IDof the music content in the management file and also recordingcontent-file link information and content-source information for thecontent ID in the management file. If the additional informationincluded in the song list information and the additional informationreceived from the content server 7 include data not included in themanagement file, the data may be added to the management file asadditional information.

10: Processing by the Distribution Server in Song-List Transmission

In the embodiment described above, the terminal 1 determines whether ornot a music content on a song list has already been stored in the HDD31. The following description explains an embodiment in which thedistribution server 5 determines whether or not a music content on asong list has already been stored in the HDD 31 employed in a terminal 1making a request for the song list.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing flows of communication processing from anoperation to make a request for a song list to an operation to downloada music content. It is to be noted that, much like the communicationprocessing shown in FIG. 16, the processing shown in FIG. 19 asprocessing of the terminal 1 is processes carried out by thecommunication-processing unit 32 and the database management unit 30 inaccordance with control executed by the CPU 21 as implementation ofoperations carried out by the user. In addition, the configurations ofthe distribution server 5 and the content server 7 are all but the sameas the configuration of the CD-information server 3 explained earlier byreferring to FIG. 2. That is to say, processing of the distributionserver 5 is processes carried out by a communication-processing unit anda database management unit in accordance with control executed by a CPU.By the same token, processing of the content server 7 is processescarried out by a communication-processing unit and a database managementunit in accordance with control executed by a CPU.

Much like the communication processing shown in FIG. 16, in accordancewith an operation carried out by the user to display a song list, theterminal 1 executes a procedure S31 to transmit a signal including asong list identifier to the distribution server 5 as a request for thesong list. In this case, however, the terminal 1 also transmitsinformation included in all management files stored in the HDD 31 at thepresent time to the distribution server 5. The transmitted informationincluded in all the management files includes at least all content IDsrecorded in the management files. As described above, in the terminal 1employed in a particular information distribution system, a managementfile may include a content ID identifying a music content not stored inthe HDD 31. In such an information distribution system, the content-filelink information is also transmitted to the distribution server 5. Inthis case, the distribution server 5 refers to the content-file linkinformation to merely determine whether or not the information is nolink.

In addition to all the content IDs, all CD identifiers may also betransmitted to the distribution server 5.

When the distribution server 5 receives the signal making a request fora song list, the distribution server 5 executes a procedure S41 tosearch the song-list database 6 having a data structure like the oneshown in FIG. 14A on the basis of the song-list identifier for a songlist identified by the song-list identifier represented by the requestsignal.

Then, the CPU employed in the distribution server 5 executes a procedureS43 to collate content IDs included in the song list obtained as aresult of the search with all the content IDs received from the terminal1.

FIG. 20 shows a flowchart representing the process carried out by theCPU employed in the distribution server 5 to collate the content IDs.The flowchart shown in FIG. 20 begins with a step F301 at which the CPUemployed in the distribution server 5 sets a variable i at 1. Then, atthe next step F302, the variable i is examined to determine whether ornot the variable i has exceeded the number of music contents on the songlist obtained as a result of the search.

If the variable i has not exceeded the number of music contents on thesong list, the flow of the processing goes on to a step F303 at whichthe content IDs received from the terminal 1 are searched for the sameone as the ith content ID on the received song list.

It is to be noted that, as described above, the content ID of a contentnot stored yet in the HDD 31 may be included in a management file insome cases. For this reason, if a management file including the ithcontent ID on the song list information is found in the search of themanagement-file group, the content-file link information associated withthe content ID is referred to. A content-file link information set at‘no link’ indicates that the ith content ID is the content ID of acontent not stored yet in the HDD 31 employed in the terminal 1.

That is to say, a result of the search processing carried out at thestep F303 may indicate that there is no ID content, which is the sameone as the ith content ID on the received song list information, or mayindicate that there is the same ID content as the ith content ID on thereceived song list information, but the content-file link informationfor the same content ID is set at ‘no link’. In this case, the contentidentified by the ith content ID on the song list information isdetermined to be a content not stored yet in the HDD 31 employed in theterminal 1.

At a step F304, the result of the search processing is examined todetermine whether or not the content identified by the ith content ID onthe song list information has been stored in the HDD 31 employed in theterminal 1. If the result of the determination indicates that thecontent identified by the ith content ID on the song list informationhas not been stored in the HDD 31 employed in the terminal 1, the flowof the processing goes on to a step F305 at which a phrase stating: “Asong not owned yet by the user” is set for the ith content ID.

If the result of the determination indicates that the content identifiedby the ith content ID on the song List information has been stored inthe HDD 31 employed in the terminal 1, on the other hand, the flow ofthe processing goes on from the step F304 to a step F306 at which aphrase stating: “A song already owned by the user” is set for the ithcontent ID.

The processing described above is carried out repeatedly whileincrementing the variable i at a step F307 till the determination resultproduced at the step F302 indicates that the variable i has exceeded thenumber of music contents on the song list information. That is to say,the distribution server 5 determines whether or not a content identifiedby every content ID on the song-list information like the one shown inFIG. 15 has been stored in the HDD 31 employed in the terminal 1.

As the determination result is obtained as described above, thedistribution server 5 executes a procedure S44 to transmit the song listinformation and the determination result to the terminal 1.

Receiving the song list and the determination result from thedistribution server 5, the terminal 1 executes a procedure S37 todisplay the song list on the display unit 27 in a format also showing adetermination result for each content ID. As shown in FIG. 18, forexample, for every music content owned by the user and already stored inthe HDD 31, the downloading operation is put in an inactive state. Thatis to say, for a music content with its determination result set at “Asong already owned by the user” as described above, the downloading iconis put in an inactive state.

Of course, that there is a number of other conceivable displayconfigurations for indicating whether or not a music content on a songlist has been stored in the HDD 31. Instead of displaying thedownloading icon an inactive state, for example, for a music contentalready stored in the HDD 31, a phrase stating: “Already stored in theHDD” or a message similar to the phrase can also be displayed.

By displaying a song list and determination results to the user in theterminal 1 as described above, the user can carry out an operation todownload a desired music content on the song list after confirming thatthe desired music content has not been stored in the HDD 31. Thus, amusic content already stored in the HDD 31 can be prevented from beingdownloaded again only because the user forgets that the user already hasthe content.

If the user carries out an operation to purchase a music content on thesong list, the terminal 1 executes the procedures S33 to S36 shown inFIG. 19 and the content server 7 executes the procedures S51 to S53shown in the same figure. Since the processing of these procedures isthe same as that explained earlier by referring to FIG. 16, however, itsexplanation is not repeated.

11: Information Acquisition Processing Based on a Transmitted Content IDat a Reproduction Time

By referring to FIG. 21, the following description explains processing,which is carried out by using a content ID when a music content recordedon a CD or stored in the HDD 31 is reproduced in the terminal 1.

In the processing, information relevant to the music content beingreproduced is acquired. By displaying the acquired relevant informationto the user, another service can be rendered to the user.

First of all, the CPU 21 employed by the terminal 1 executes a procedureS61 shown in FIG. 21 to reproduce a music content recorded on a CDmounted on the terminal 1 or stored in the HDD 31. At that time, thecontent ID of the music content is acquired and a request signal forrelevant information is transmitted to the CD-information server 3 byexecution of a procedure S61.

Receiving the content ID as a signal making a request for relevantinformation from the terminal 1, the CD-information server 3 executes aprocedure S71 to search the CD-information database 4 explained earlierby referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 on the basis of the content ID foradditional information associated with the content ID. Then, theCD-information server 3 transmits the additional information found inthe search to the terminal 1. The additional information is informationrelevant to the music content being reproduced in the terminal 1.

In this way, the terminal 1 is capable of obtaining information relevantto the content being reproduced. Then, the terminal 1 executes aprocedure S63 to display the relevant information on the display unit 27to the user. Thus, a content-reproducing service with a high added valuecan be rendered for the user.

It is to be noted that the relevant information acquired by the terminal1 can also be added to a management file as information associated withthe content ID.

The processing described above can be carried out to render an effectiveservice of typically always providing most recent information to theuser. The most recent information held by the CD-information server 3 asrelevant information associated with a content ID all the time includesinformation on concerts conducted by the artist singing the musiccontent, information on sales of goods relevant to the music content,information on new musical scores and information ontelevision-broadcasted performances. By storing the relevant informationin the CD-information database 4 and updating the information all thetime, the information can be delivered to the user when the userreproduces the music content. Thus, this service can be rendered as aneffective advertising method for promoting the sales of the CD. Inaddition, the relevant information may also include URLs of relevantsites such as a site for making a reservation for a concert ticket, asite for handing sales through the Internet and a site serving as asource of related data to be downloaded to the terminal 1. If the useris allowed to display the web page of a related site by carrying out anoperation to click an icon appearing on the screen as an icon for thesite, the user will be provided with not only an advertisement but alsoconvenience to make a reservation for a concert ticket or buy theticket.

12: First Processing to Acquire Information by Transmission of a ContentID at a Broadcast Reception Time

By referring to FIG. 22, the following description explains processingto provide the user with various kinds of information associated with amusic content received as a broadcasted sound in an operation to receivea radio broadcast or a data broadcast in the terminal 1.

The processing is carried out to acquire information relevant to abroadcasted music content in the course of an operation to listen to thecontent and present the information to the user so as to render anotherservice for the user.

It is to be noted that FIG. 22 shows processing in which a broadcastingstation broadcasts a broadcast signal including a content ID superposedon the signal as a signal representing a music content. That is to say,when broadcasting a music content as a signal, the broadcasting stationincludes data of a content ID superposed on the signal as data of thecontent ID of the music content. The superposed data is a content IDmanaged by the CD-information server 3 as an ID conforming to a rule ofuniformity.

In operations carried out as a procedure S81 shown in FIG. 22, datareceived by the tuner 37 employed in the terminal 1 is supplied to theaudio-data processor 34 before being generated as an audio output fromthe speaker 35.

Then, the CPU 21 executes a procedure S82 to extract a content ID fromthe broadcast signal being received.

Subsequently, the next procedure S83 is executed to transmit the contentID to the CD-information server 3 as a signal making a request forinformation relevant to the music content identified by the content ID.

Receiving the content ID as a signal making a request for the relevantinformation, the CD-information server 3 executes a procedure S91 tosearch the CD-information database 4 explained earlier by referring toFIGS. 4 and 5 on the basis of the content ID for additional informationassociated with the content ID. Then, the CD-information server 3transmits the additional information found in the search to the terminal1. The additional information is information relevant to the musiccontent being received and output in the terminal 1.

In this way, the terminal 1 is capable of obtaining information relevantto the music content being received and output. The relevant informationincludes the title of the music content being received and output, thename of an artist singing the music content and other additionalinformation. Then, the terminal 1 executes a procedure S84 to displaythe relevant information on the display unit 27 to the user. In thisway, the user is informed of the title of the music content beingreceived and output and the name of an artist singing the music content.Thus, a content-reproducing service with a high added value can berendered for the user.

It is to be noted that, if the content ID extracted from the broadcastedsignal matches a content ID included in a management file stored in theHDD 31, the relevant information acquired from the CD-information server3 may also be added to the management file as additional information.

By carrying out the processing described above, the user is capable ofidentifying accurate information such as the title of a song asinformation relevant to a broadcasted music content, and the processingis also carried out to render an effective service of typicallyproviding the user with most recent information in the same way as thetypical processing explained earlier by referring to FIG. 21. That is tosay, for a broadcasted music content, it is possible to provide the userwith information on concerts conducted by the artist singing the musiccontent, information on sales of goods relevant to the music content,information on new musical scores and information ontelevision-broadcasted performances to mention a few. In addition, it ispossible to provide the user with guidance information on relevant sitessuch as a site for making a reservation for a concert ticket, a site forhanding sales through the Internet and a site serving as a source ofrelated data to be downloaded to the terminal 1.

13: Second Processing to Acquire Information by Transmission of aContent ID at a Broadcast Reception Time

By the way, in the embodiment described above, the content ID isincluded in a broadcast signal. Thus, the broadcasting station mustcooperate with the information distribution system providing the servicebased on the content ID. However, relevant information similar to thatdescribed above can also be displayed even if the broadcasting stationdoes not include the content ID in the broadcast signal.

Processing to display relevant information with no content ID includedin the broadcast signal is explained by referring to FIG. 23.

In this processing, communications with the broadcast-information server9 shown in FIG. 1 are carried out. The broadcast-information server 9has a broadcast-information database 10 for storing a time table forevery broadcasting station and the content ID of every broadcastedcontent. Every content ID is a content ID managed by the CD-informationserver 3 as an ID conforming to a rule of uniformity.

First of all, the terminal 1 executes a procedure S81 shown in FIG. 23to carry out operations of supplying data received by the tuner 37 tothe audio-data processor 34 to be finally generated as a sound outputfrom the speaker 35.

Then, the CPU 21 executes a procedure S83A to transmit the name of abroadcasting station transmitting a broadcast signal representing thedata being received and a broadcasting time of the signal to thebroadcast-information server 9 as a request for a content ID. In placeof the name of the broadcasting station, the identification of thestation can be transmitted.

Receiving the request, the broadcast-information server 9 executes aprocedure S95 to search the broadcast-information database 10 on thebasis of the name of a broadcasting station and the broadcasting time ofthe signal for the content ID of a content broadcasted by the station atthe broadcasting time. Then, the broadcast-information server 9 extractsthe content ID found in the search from the broadcast-informationdatabase 10. Subsequently, a procedure S96 is executed to transmit thecontent ID obtained as a result of the search to the terminal 1.

In this way, the terminal 1 is capable of obtaining the content ID of abroadcasted music content being received. Then, the terminal 1 executesa procedure S83B to transmit the content ID to the CD-information server3 as a signal making a request for relevant information.

Receiving the content ID as the signal making a request for relevantinformation, the CD-information server 3 executes a procedure S91 tosearch the CD-information database 4 on the basis of the content ID foradditional information associated with the content ID, and extracts theinformation found in the search from the CD-information database 4.Then, the CD-information server 3 transmits the additional informationobtained as a result of the search to the terminal 1. The additionalinformation is information relevant to a broadcasted music content beingoutput by the terminal 1.

In this way, the terminal 1 is capable of obtaining the song title ofthe music content being received, the name of the artist singing themusic content and other relevant information. Then, the terminal 1executes a procedure S84 to display these pieces of information on thedisplay unit 27 to the user.

That is to say, even if the broadcast signal does not include a contentID, the content ID can be acquired from the broadcast-information server9 so that the user is capable of obtaining the song title of the musiccontent being received, the name of the artist singing the music contentand other information relevant to the content.

14: Backup Services

The terminal 1 provided by this embodiment manages ripped and downloadedcontent files stored in the HDD 31 by using content IDs included in amanagement file. Since content IDs are each a unique identifier in theinformation distribution system shown in FIG. 1, the following backupservice can be rendered.

A content downloaded by the user from the content server 7, that is, amusic content purchased by the user at a price, is stored in the HDD 31.Thus, if the HDD 31 crashes or the terminal 1 itself breaks down and isreplaced by a newly purchased one, the purchased music content is alsolost.

In order to cope with such a situation, a backup service for a contentis rendered as shown in FIG. 24.

The CPU 21 employed in the terminal 1 carries out processing to transmitthe data of a management file to the backup-service server 11periodically or at predetermined points of time by execution ofprocedures S101, S102 and so on.

In this case, the data of the transmitted management file includes atleast content IDs. If all content files stored in the HDD 31 areentitled to the backup service, for example, the content IDs of all thecontent files are transmitted to the backup-service server 11. To put itconcretely, content IDs included in all management files are transmittedto the backup-service server 11 except content IDs each havingcontent-file link information set at ‘no link’.

As for a content ripped from a CD, the user should own the CD so thatthe content is conceivably entitled to no backup service. In this case,however, the content ID of such a content is also transmitted to thebackup-service server 11 as the content ID of a downloaded content. Toput it concretely, content IDs included in all management files aretransmitted to the backup-service server 11 by setting thecontent-source information for each of the content IDs at a downloadsite.

In addition, the data of a management file is transmitted to thebackup-service server 11 periodically as described above or, as a properalternative, right after a content file is added to the HDD 31 or rightafter a content file is downloaded to the terminal 1.

Every time the data of a management file or, at least content IDsincluded in a management file is received from the terminal 1, thebackup-service server 11 stores the identification of the terminal 1 orthe identification of the user and the contents of the management filein a backup database 12 by execution of procedures F111, F112 and so on.

Thus, the backup database 12 always contains information on contentsheld by the terminal 1 so that contents entitled to the backup servicecan be managed for each terminal 1.

Since the backup database 12 is used for storing only content IDsinstead of actual backups of the contents themselves, it is notnecessary to store an extremely large amount of backup data in thebackup database 12 in order to render the backup service for a largenumber of terminals 1.

Assume that a terminal 1 breaks down, requiring the user to purchase anew terminal 1. In this case, the new terminal 1 executes a procedureS103 to transmit a request for a backup service to the backup-serviceserver 11 in accordance with an operation carried out by the user or inaccordance with the setting of the newly purchased terminal 1. Alongwith the request, information such as the identification of the user orthe identification of the broken-down terminal 1 is transmitted to thebackup-service server 11. As an alternative, the user enters a passwordor is subjected to an authentication process, or other processing iscarried out so as to let the backup-service server 11 recognize theterminal change from the broken-down terminal to the new terminal.

At the request for a backup service, the backup-service server 11executes a procedure S113 to read out content IDs stored in the backupdatabase 12 to be used in the backup service. In this way, thebackup-service server 11 is capable of recognizing contents entitled tothe backup service.

Then, a procedure 5114 is executed to transmit all the content IDs eachserving as a target of the backup service to the content server 7,requesting the content server 7 that contents identified by the contentsIDs be downloaded to the terminal 1 without charging a fee to the user.Subsequently, a procedure S115 is executed to notify the terminal 1 thatcontents entitled to the backup service will be downloaded from thecontent server 7.

The content server 7 executes a procedure 5121 to search the contentdatabase 8 with a configuration like the one shown in FIG. 14B on thebasis of the content IDs received from the backup-service server 11 forcontents identified by the content IDs. Then, a procedure 5122 isexecuted to download the contents found in the search to the terminal 1.

In this way, the user of the terminal 1 is allowed to acquire contentsstored in the broken-down terminal 1 at no charge. That is to say, it ispossible to resolve a disadvantage incurred by the user due to lostcontents caused by the failure of the terminal 1.

It is to be noted that, in the actual operation, instead of downloadingthe contents at no charge, the contents can be downloaded at a fee lowerthan the normal one.

In addition, when receiving a request for a backup service, thebackup-service server 11 may transmit a list of contents entitled to abackup service so as to let the user select only contents to bedownloaded from those on the list. Then, the backup-service server 11transmits only the content IDs of the selected contents to the contentserver 7 to inform the content server 7 that the contents identified bythe content IDs are contents to be downloaded to the terminal 1.

A variety of typical configurations and typical operations has beendescribed so far as embodiments. However, there is still a number ofconceivable typical configurations of the terminal 1 and the variousservers as well as conceivable typical operations that can be carriedout by the terminal 1 and the various servers. In addition, there is anumber of conceivable and typical configurations of the informationdistribution system.

Furthermore, in the embodiments, for the terminal 1 capable ofreproducing a content from a CD identified by a CD identifier, dataassociated with the CD identifier is searched for a content ID. It isneedless to say, however, that the embodiments are also applicable toother recording media such as a DVD, for which a DVD identifier is usedin place of the CD identifier.

On the top of that, the scope of the present invention is not limited tomusic contents. For example, the present invention can also be appliedto any other contents such as a moving picture, a still picture, a textand a program.

A program provided by the present invention is a program to be executedby the terminal 1 or any of the servers to carry out the operationsdescribed above. That is to say, by having an information-processingapparatus execute such a program, the apparatus is capable offunctioning as any of the servers or the terminal.

In addition, a recording medium provided by the present invention as amedium for storing a program provided by the present invention asdescribed above facilitates easy provision of the program executed tocarry out the operations of any server or the terminal, which areprovided by the present invention, and is suitable for construction ofthe information distribution system.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As is obvious from the above descriptions, the present invention has thefollowing effects.

In an information distribution apparatus and an informationcommunication terminal, which are provided by the present invention,contents are managed by using content identifiers (content IDs) managedas IDs conforming to a rule of uniformity. Particularly, contents rippedfrom disc recording media such as a CD mounted on the informationcommunication terminal and stored in the terminal are each also managedby using a content identifier (content ID) acquired from the informationdistribution apparatus. In this way, the contents stored in theinformation communication terminal can be managed by using contentidentifiers shared as common identifiers by the information distributionapparatus.

Thus, in a communication with the information distribution apparatus,the information communication terminal is capable of identifying acontent stored in storage means employed in the distributioncommunication terminal by using a content identifier managed as an IDconforming to a rule of uniformity. As a result, the present inventiondemonstrates the effect of an ability to render a variety of servicessuch as an operation to download a content from the informationdistribution apparatus to the information communication terminal and anoperation carried out by the information communication terminal toacquire additional information from the information distributionapparatus.

When a content is read out from a recording medium such as a CD andstored in the storage means in the information communication terminal,the information communication terminal transmits content identificationinformation for identifying the content to the information distributionapparatus. Then, the information distribution apparatus transmits acontent identifier corresponding to the content identificationinformation to the information communication terminal. In this way, theinformation communication terminal is capable of obtaining a contentidentifier (content ID), which is managed as an ID conforming to a ruleof uniformity and associated with the content. Thus, contents stored inthe storage means are each put in a state of being manageable by usingsuch a content identifier without specially requiring the user to beaware of the content identifier, that is, with the user remainingunaware of the identifier as it is. In addition, the informationcommunication terminal is capable of obtaining various kinds ofinformation such as CD-title information as additional informationassociated with the content and, by adding these pieces of informationto management information, many kinds of information can be held in theinformation communication terminal.

On the op of that, much like a CD identifier described above, sincecontent identification information can be generated by using informationcorresponding to the recording medium itself, the informationdistribution apparatus is capable of searching a database for contentidentifiers for the recording medium as well as additional informationassociated with the content identifiers, and transmitting the contentidentifiers as well as the additional information to the informationcommunication terminal. Examples of the information corresponding to therecording medium itself are management information such as the TOC, abarcode and ISRC information. Assume for example that one music contentis ripped from a recording medium such as a CD and stored in the storagemeans such as an HDD. Even in such a case, the information communicationterminal is capable of obtaining data such as the title of the CD, thecontent identifiers of all contents recorded on the CD and additionalinformation from the information distribution apparatus.

Thus, the information communication terminal is capable of displayingadditional information included in management information and requestingan external information distribution apparatus to transmit relevantinformation in an operation to reproduce a content from not only thestorage means, but also recording media such as a CD.

In addition, the management information also includes informationindicating whether or not a content identified by any one of the contentidentifiers has been stored in the storage means so that propermanagement can be executed.

On the top of that, while a content list received from an externalinformation distribution apparatus is being displayed in the informationcommunication terminal, the management information is referenced todetermine whether or not each of contents on the content list has beenstored in the storage means on the basis of content identifiers. Sincethe display of the content list informs the user of whether or not eachof contents on the content list has been stored in the storage means,the content list is a convenient tool for selecting a desired contentfrom the content list as a content to be downloaded from the informationdistribution apparatus. Typically, the content list is displayed to theuser to allow the user to select a content to be purchased anddownloaded to the information communication terminal from theinformation distribution apparatus. Since the user is informed ofwhether or not each of contents on the content list has been stored inthe storage means, the user is prevented from purchasing a content morethan once.

By the same token, the information distribution apparatus is alsocapable of determining whether or not each of contents on a content listto be transmitted to the information communication terminal has beenstored in the storage means employed in the information communicationterminal on the basis of a content identifier received from theinformation communication terminal. The information distributionapparatus then transmits results of the determination along with thecontent list to the information communication terminal. By displayingthe content list and the results of the determination in the informationcommunication terminal in a format understandable to the user, thecontent list can be used as a tool convenient for the user in the sameway as described above.

Moreover, with the management information held in the informationcommunication terminal, since contents are managed by using contentidentifiers conforming to a rule of uniformity, content identifiers canbe used when information relevant to the content is requested for anexternal information distribution apparatus. Consequently, the externalinformation distribution apparatus can search the information thusrequested by using the content identifiers and then transmits theinformation to the information communication terminal. By displaying thereceived information in the information communication terminal, it ispossible to inform the user about information relevant to the reproducedcontents so as to improve the information serviceability.

In addition, in the information distribution apparatus in an informationdistribution system, contents are managed by using content identifiersconforming to a rule of uniformity. Thus, since each informationdistribution apparatus is capable of searching a database forinformation associated with a common content identifier, it is possibleto easily render services provided by a number of informationdistribution apparatus functioning in collaboration with each other.

As a result, the qualities of services rendered by the informationcommunication terminal for the user can be improved.

The information communication terminal is also capable of transmittingthe content identifiers of all or some of contents stored in the storagemeans to an external information distribution apparatus for renderingbackup services. Since this information distribution apparatus savesbackups of the content identifiers received from the informationcommunication terminal, a backup service can be rendered in the event ofa failure occurring in the information communication terminal.

Since a content stored in the information communication terminal can beidentified from the content identifier of the content, for example, aservice can be rendered to guarantee the content data itself.

In addition, the information communication terminal is also capable ofextracting a content identifier from a broadcast signal received bybroadcast-receiving means employed in the information communicationterminal. As an alternative, the information communication terminalgenerates content identification information from information on abroadcasting station transmitting the broadcast signal and/or abroadcasting time. Then, the information communication terminaltransmits the content identification information to an externalinformation distribution apparatus to request the informationdistribution apparatus to transmit a content identifier for thebroadcast signal to the information communication terminal.

Then, the information communication terminal transmits the contentidentifier to another external information distribution apparatus.Receiving the content identifier, the information distribution apparatussearches a database for information associated with the contentidentifier and transmits the information to the informationcommunication terminal. In this way, the information communicationterminal is capable of displaying the information received from theother information distribution apparatus as various kinds of informationon the received broadcast. This feature is also convenient to the user.

By virtue of a program provided by the present invention and a recordingmedium for recording the program, information distribution apparatus andan information communication terminal, which are capable of exhibitingthe effects described above, or a system including the informationcommunication terminal and the information distribution apparatus can beimplemented with ease as an information-processing apparatus.

1. (canceled)
 2. A data distribution component comprising: circuitryconfigured to communicate with a plurality of devices, provide contentidentification data specifying a content item, provide an opportunity topurchase the content item to the plurality of devices, provide thecontent item to a first one of the devices of a user, after a purchaseprocess, and provide the content item which is purchased at the firstone of the devices of the user to a second one of the devices of theuser for download; and a memory configured to store the contentidentification data and the content item.
 3. The data distributioncomponent according to claim 2, wherein the content item is one of musiccontent, video content, an application program and game software.
 4. Thedata distribution component according to claim 2, wherein the circuitryis configured to provide the content item to the second one of thedevices of the user free of charge.
 5. The data distribution componentaccording to claim 2, wherein the circuitry is configured to provide aplurality of content items purchased at the first one of the devices ofthe user to the second one of the devices of the user.
 6. The datadistribution component according to claim 2, wherein the circuitry isconfigured to provide a list of content items purchased at the first oneof the devices of the user to the second one of the devices of the user.7. The data distribution component according to claim 6, wherein thecircuitry is configured to provide the content item which is purchasedat the first one of the devices of the user based on a selection fromthe list.
 8. A data distribution system comprising: circuitry configuredto communicate with a plurality of devices, provide contentidentification data specifying a content item, provide an opportunity topurchase the content item to the plurality of devices, provide thecontent item to a first one of the devices of a user, after a purchaseprocess, and provide the content item which is purchased at the firstone of the devices of the user to a second one of the devices of theuser for download; and a memory configured to store the contentidentification data and the content item.
 9. The data distributionsystem according to claim 8, wherein the content item is one of musiccontent, video content, an application program and game software. 10.The data distribution system according to claim 8, wherein the circuitryis configured to provide the content item to the second one of thedevices of the user free of charge.
 11. The data distribution systemaccording to claim 8, wherein the circuitry is configured to provide aplurality of content items purchased at the first one of the devices ofthe user to the second one of the devices of the user.
 12. The datadistribution system according to claim 8, wherein the circuitry isconfigured to provide a list of content items purchased at the first oneof the devices of the user to the second one of the devices of the user.13. The data distribution system according to claim 12, wherein thecircuitry is configured to provide the content item which is purchasedat the first one of the devices of the user based on a selection fromthe list.
 14. A method of a data distribution component for providingcontent, the method comprising: providing, by circuitry of the datadistribution component, content identification data specifying a contentitem; providing, by the circuitry of the data distribution component, anopportunity to purchase the content item to a plurality of devices;providing, by the circuitry of the data distribution component, thecontent item to a first one of the devices of a user, after a purchaseprocess; providing the content item which is purchased at the first oneof the devices of the user to a second one of the devices of the userfor download; and storing, by a memory of the data distributioncomponent, the content identification data and the content item.
 15. Themethod of the data distribution component according to claim 14, whereinthe content item is one of music content, video content, an applicationprogram and game software.
 16. The method of the data distributioncomponent according to claim 14, wherein the circuitry provides thecontent item to the second one of the devices of the user free ofcharge.
 17. The method of the data distribution component according toclaim 14, wherein the step of providing the content item comprises:providing a plurality of content items purchased at the first one of thedevices of the user to the second one of the devices of the user. 18.The method of the data distribution component according to claim 14,further comprising: providing a list of content items purchased at thefirst one of the devices of the user to the second one of the devices ofthe user.
 19. The method of the data distribution component according toclaim 18, wherein the step of providing the content item comprises:providing the content item which is purchased at the first one of thedevices of the user based on a selection from the list.